"La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful Lady without Mercy") is a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called La Belle Dame sans Mercy.[1]
Considered an English classic, the poem is an example of Keats' poetic preoccupation with love and death.[2] The poem is about a fairy who condemns a knight to an unpleasant fate after she seduces him with her eyes and singing. The fairy inspired several artists to paint images that became early examples of 19th-century femme fatale iconography.[3] The poem continues to be referred to in many works of literature, music, art, and film.
Poem
The poem is simple in structure with twelve stanzas of four lines each in an ABCB rhyme scheme. Below are both the original and revised[clarification needed] version of the poem:[4][5]
The original version, 1819
The revised version, 1820
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing!
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful, a fairy's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
'I love thee true'.
She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery’s song.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said.—
I love thee true.
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gaz'd and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild sad eyes
So kiss'd to sleep.
And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dream'd, ah woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'
I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Like the author's other 1819 poems such as “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on Melancholy,” and “Ode on Indolence,” the poem was written at the heat of Keats' passion for his fiancée Fanny Brawne. This is why some critics think that its theme partly reflects their relationship.[9] However, critics such as Amy Lowell argue that "La Belle Dame sans Merci" is not biographical[10] and that it is "not connected, except in the most general way, with Keats himself and Fanny Brawne.”
Around 1910, Charles Villiers Stanford produced a musical setting for the poem. It is a dramatic interpretation requiring a skilled (male) vocalist and equally skilled accompanist.[17] In the 21st century it remains popular and is included on many anthologies of English song or British Art Music recorded by famous artists.[18]
Ukrainian composer Valentyn Silvestrov wrote a song for baritone and piano after Russian translation of the poem. It belongs to Silvestrov's song cycle Quiet Songs (Silent Songs) (1974–1975).
In Agatha Christie's 1936 mystery novel Murder in Mesopotamia, the plot is centered upon an unusual woman named Louise Leidner who is described multiple times as "a kind of Belle Dame sin Merci". One character describes her as possessing a "calamitous magic that plays the devil with things".[27][28]
The last two lines of the first verse ("The sedge has withered from the lake/And no birds sing") were used as an epigraph for Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring (1962), about the environmental damage caused by the irresponsible use of pesticides. The second line was repeated later in the book, as the title of a chapter about their specific effects on birds.[29]
The last two lines of the 11th verse are used as the title of a science fiction short story, "And I awoke and found me here on the cold hill's side" (1973) by James Tiptree Jr.[30]
Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles refer to the poem in Chapter Five of The Courts of Chaos (1978) wherein the protagonist journeys to a land that resembles the poem.[31]
The line is also featured in Philip Roth's The Human Stain (2000) in reaction to Coleman describing his new, far younger love interest.[34]
In Chapter 32 of Kristine Smith's novel Law Of Survival (2001) the protagonist, Jani, reveals her true hybrid eyes to the general public for the first time, then she asks another character, Niall, what she looks like. Niall smiles and quotes a snippet of La Belle Dame sans Merci and gives Keats credit for his words.[35]
The Beldam in Neil Gaiman's 2002 horror-fantasy novel Coraline refers to the mysterious woman who is also known as Belle Dame. Both share many similarities as both lure their protagonists into their lair by showing their love towards them and giving them treats to enjoy. The protagonists in both stories also encounter the ghosts who have previously met both women and warn the protagonist about their true colours and at the end of the story, the protagonist is stuck in their lair, with the exception of Coraline who managed to escape while the unnamed knight in this poem is still stuck in the mysterious fairy's lair.[36]
L. A. Meyer's Bloody Jack series (2002–2014) features a take on La Belle Dame sans Merci, adapted to reflect the protagonists age. Mary "Jacky" Faber became known as "La belle jeune fille sans merci".
In Hunting Ground (2009) by Patricia Briggs, La Belle Dame sans Merci is identified as The Lady of the Lake and is a hidden antagonist.[37]
Cassandra Clare's 2016 collection of novellas Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy includes a novella titled Pale Kings and Princes, named after the line "I saw pale kings and princes too/Pale warriors, death-pale were they all". Three of the poem's stanzas are also excerpted in the story.[39]
The last two lines of the first verse ("The sedge has withered from the lake/And no birds sing") are used in the text of the 2019 Nebula award-winning science fiction story This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019).[40]
Television
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2018)
The theme of a woman seducing and sacrificing men to keep herself immortal are: Helen Of Troy (Kolchak: The Night Stalker); Queen Cleopatria/Pamela Morris "Queen of the Nile"; Unnamed Model "The Girl with the Hungary Eyes" (Rod Serling's "Night Gallery);Lady Die (Friday the 13th: The Series); Mary Beth (Freakazoid!); Mirror Queen (The Brothers Grimm);Pamela Dare (The Adventures of Superboy).
Star Trek animated cartoon series "The Lorelei Signal" Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured by beautiful femme fatales who use science to drain the lifeforce out of the male crewmen to remain young; "Favorite Son" (Star Trek: Voyager) Ensign Kim finds his life energy drained by an all female society; "Otherworld (TV series) episode ["Paradise Lost"] in which beautiful femme fatales who use science to drain the lifeforce out of males to remain young;"Ark II" 1976 [last episode] "Orkus" where the crew rapidly ages after encountering a group of Immortals.
"The Quality of Mercy" [Babylon 5] a wounded insane serial killer named Karl Mueller tried to force a terminally ill physician to use an alien healing device to heal him or he would harm her and her daughter; the physician used the device to transfer her disease to him and then used it to drain his life energy from him until he literally dropped dead. A 1990 comic movie (Based on Twilight Zone "Queen of the Nile") had a vain woman using and sacrificing dozens of willing men to maintain her beauty until to her shock and horror one man refuses her..and she becomes older!
It has also been suggested that there is a strong similarity with the plot of Monty Python's Seduced Milkmen sketch.
Other
In a March 2017 interview with The Quietus the English songwriter and musician John Lydon cited the poem as a favourite.[46]
In the popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, the card "Merieke Ri Berit" is modelled after this poem.[47]
^Stanford, Charles Villiers (music), Keats, John (words) (1910). La belle dame sans merci : ballad (For voice and piano) (musical score). London: Augener & Co. OCLC433495401.
^Christie, Agatha (author); Bakewell, Michael (2003). Murder in Mesopotamia : A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation (audio compact disc). Bath: BBC Audiobooks. Event occurs at 01:16:55. ISBN9780563494232. OCLC938615128. POIROT:But Louise Leidner was no ordinary woman. DR REILLY:She certainly was not. She'd got that sort of... calamitous magic that plays the devil with things. Kind of a Belle Dame sans Merci.
^Christie, Agatha (1936). "Chapter 19. A New Suspicion". Murder in Mesopotamia. London: Published for the Crime club by Collins. OCLC938286864. But Mrs. Leidner was something out of the ordinary in that line. She'd got just that sort of calamitous magic that plays the deuce with things - a kind of Belle Dame sans Merci.
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