SHAHNAZ RAD
Is
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
La Belle
Dame Sans Merci
by John
Keats
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 lilly on the 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 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―
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 sigh’d full sore,
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
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
Thee
hath 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
And no birds sing
.
“Parking Space” for this
link kindly provided by :
City Estates Group,
Tel: 0121 523 8004 info@cityestatesmid.com
Fax: 0121 551 3043
