I.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight, Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing.2.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight, So haggard and so
The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done.3.
I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheek a fading rose Fast withereth too.4.
I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful, a faery's child:
Her hair was long, her foot was ligh, And her eyes were wild.5.
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.6.
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.7.
She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said, "I love thee true!"8.
She took me to her elfin grot, And there she gazed and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, sad eyes—- So kissed to sleep.9.
And there we slumbered on the moss, And there I dreamed, ah! woe betide,
The latest dream I ever dreamed On the cold hill side.10.
I saw pale kings, and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cried—-"La belle Dame sans merci Hath thee in thrall!"11.
I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill side.12.
And that is why I sojourn here, Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing.'This poem was first published by Leigh Hunt in The Indicator for the 10th of May 1820 (No.
XI), with some introductory remarks.
The signature used by Keats on this occasion, as on that of issuing the Sonnet On A Dream was "Caviare." In 1848 Lord Houghton gave the poem among the Literary Remains, apparently from a manuscript source, for the variations are very considerable.
I think there can be no doubt that The Indicator version is a revision of the other. ...
In one of the late Gabriel Rossetti's letters he characterizes this poem as "the wondrous Belle Dame sans Merci." I haveno positive information as to the date at which it was composed; but I am fain to regard it as a crowning essay in perfect imaginative utterance, written between the poet's partial recovery and his departure to seek health and find a grave in Italy.'~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed.
H.
Buxton Forman,
Crowell publ. 1895.
