Poetry Review John Keats La Belle Dame Sans Merci

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1819 - Title translates to THe Beautiful Lady Without Mercy A very haunting mysterious poem about a knight subjected to a terrible assault by a fairy maiden. Un un-named narrator sees a sad, lonely ageing knight sitting by a woodland lake. The knight never moves from the spot. The narrator asks him why he loiters there. The knight tells his story. He was passing through the area when he met a beautiful woman approaching from the nearby meadow. He wooed her with garlands of flowers and other gifts, and takes her riding on his horse. They make love and declare love for one another before she takes him to her elven grotto. She seduces him further and puts him to sleep with four kisses. He dreams a terrible nightmare in which various dead men, including princes, kings and knights, cry out to him from a deep cave that he is enchanted by a woman without mercy, the Belle Dame Sans Merci of the title. He tells us it was the latest dream he ever had, indicating that he has never been able to sleep since that dreadful time. He wakes from the nightmare to find himself back by the lake, alone. He seems unable and unwilling to move from there, possibly forever, waiting for some clue that will guide him to the strange lady again or for her to return to him. He seems terribly doomed. The fairy lady is one of the greatest Femme Fatales in literature, using men and simply draining their love and spirit away, trapping them in a perpetual need to know her anew that she will never satisfy. The knight is as doomed as the men in the cave in his own dream. La Belle's whereabouts are unknown. It is one of my favourite poems ever. Youtube - The poem, read by Ben Winshaw Arthur Chappell