La Belle Dame sans Merci
By John Keats
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is a poem written by John Keats who was a romantic poet. The first three stanzas of this poem are spoken by the narrator who is talking to the poet, asking him why he’s wondering by himself and looks so sad.
He addresses the poet as “wretched Wight” roaming outside, all alone. The narrator who’s out in the countryside talks about the night and the surroundings what it’s like presently.
There are no sedges or birds in the trees. Everything seems to be complete as the harvests are done which marks the end of the year and the fact that there are no leaves tells us it is autumn too which is a time of the year when it seems as though all forms of life have come to an end. Out of curiosity he asks the poet what is wrong with him. The rest of the poem is the poet’s reply.
The poet tells us that he saw an extremely beautiful lady somewhere as in the line “I met a lady in the meads, full beautiful, a fairy’s child”. The poet further describes the lady. He says that she was so beautiful and graceful that she couldn’t have been a human. With such long hair and the grace as she had, she had to be a fairy’s child though her eyes seemed to be wild” or “disturbed”. The poet makes her sit on his horse and in her presence, sees nothing else as in the line “I set her on my pacing steed and nothing else saw all day long”. She sings a song of such music and melody that’s it’s definitely not human. A place where there seemed to be no sound of birds is now enchanted by music. The music is not ordinary music or song but that of a fairies and the immortal as in the line “for sideways would she lean and sing a fairy’s song”.