by John Keats
 
O what can ail thee Knight at arms
 
    Alone and palely loitering?
  
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,  

    And no birds sing.

  
   

O what can ail thee knight at arms

  

    So haggard and so woe begone?

 5

The squirrel’s granary is full,

  

    And the harvest’s done —

  
   
I see a lily on thy brow
  
    With anguish moist and fever dew, 10

And on thy cheeks 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

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    And her eyes were wild —  
   
I made a Garland for her head,  

    And bracelets too, and fragrant Zones —

  
She look’d at me as she did love,  

    And made sweet moan —

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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,

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    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 sigh’d full sore, 30
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
  
    With kisses four.
  
   
And there she lulled me asleep,  

    And there I dream’d Ah woe betide!

  

The latest dream I ever dreamt

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    On the cold hill’s side

  
   
I saw pale Kings and Princes too,  
    Pale warriors, death-pale were they all
  
They cried — La Belle Dame sans Merci
 
    Thee hath in thrall — 40

 

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,
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    Alone and palely loitering,
  
Though the sedge is wither’d from the Lake,  

    And no birds sing ——

  
 
 
La Belle Dame sans Merci — in French, literally The Beautiful Lady without Mercy. Conventionally, the phrase referred to a woman who turned down a lover’s suit. Sources for the idea of the poem include one by a 15th century French poet named Alain Chartier and a passage from Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale.” This poem has inspired numerous visual representations, such as this one, and this one. Two versions of this poem exist; this is the one taken from a letter Keats wrote to his brother George and his wife.
 
sedge — any of a huge variety of grass-like plants with small flowers that grow near water
 
lily — Lilies have long been associated with both purity and death.
 
rose— Roses traditionally signify both beauty and passionate love.
 
I— The critical consensus over the years has been that the speaker changes from the initial unidentified speaker to the knight at ths point. He is answering the questions the first speaker asks.
 
meads — meadows
 
fragrant zone — literally belts made of flowers
 
as — can mean either as if or because
 
manna— in Exodus, the food miraculously supplied to the Israelites; note the reference to honey earlier in the line (the Israelites were seeking the land of milk and honey)
 
grot — grotto or cave
 
four — In the letter, Keats writes, “Why four Kisses — you will say — why four because I wish to restrain the headlong impetuosity of my Muse — she would have fain said ‘score’ without hurting the rhyme — but we must temper the Imagination as the Critics say with Judgment. I was obliged to choose an even number that both eyes might have fair play: and to speak truly I think two a piece quite sufficient — Suppose I had said seven; there would have been three and a half a piece — a very awkward affair — and well got out of on my side —”
 
Ah woe betide — an archaic expression used as a cry of grief; betide means happen
 
thrall — the state of being under someone else’s power or control
 
gloam — twilight or dusk