Analysis And Explanation Of Poem La Belle Dame San Essay

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 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 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 sad eyes
    With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep, 
    And there I dream'd - Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
    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
    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's side.

And this is why I sojourn here
    Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge has withered from the lake,
    And no birds sing.

ABOUT THE POET: JOHN KEATS (1795 to 1821)
John Keats was a man of the common people. He lost his father when he was only nine years old, and his mother before he was fifteen! He served as an apprentice to a surgeon where he worked for seven years, but he disliked it. His friendship with Shakespearean scholar, Charles Cowden Clarke had...