Analysis of La Belle Dame Sans Merci
John Keats 1795 (Moorgate) – 1821 (Rome)
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on 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 ligh,
And her eyes were wild.
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.
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.
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 gazed and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, sad eyes---
So kissed to sleep.
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.
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!"
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.
And that is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Scheme | ABcB Adxd xefe xghg xibi jdhd xeje akxk xlxL emfm xlnL nBcB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11111101 0101100 01110101 0111 11111101 1100111 01111 0011 11010111 11010101 01110101 111 11010001 1100011 01110111 00101 11011101 01011111 1111101 011 11010101 01010101 11111111 0111 11111101 01010101 01010111 1111 11110101 0111011 01110111 1111 0111101 01111101 01011101 10111 11110101 110011011 1111111 1101 11111001 1101011 01010111 10111 01111101 0101100 101110101 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,591 |
Words | 290 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 13, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 201 Views
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"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23386/la-belle-dame-sans-merci>.
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