la belle dame sans merci

• La belle dame sans merci


  The beautiful lady without mercy or without thanks
• Femme fatale


  A dangerous woman who seems beautiful and vulnerable but is actually deceptive, destructive and seductive
• Poetic form


  • Ballad - a poem that narrates a story in short predictable stanzas, written in quatrains (4-line stanzas)
• The speaker finds a knight who seems ill at ease


  The speaker asks the knight what is wrong
• The sedge has withered and there are no birds singing, creating a bleak, wintry landscape
• The knight is described as haggard, woe-begone, with anguish and fever
• The knight's life force has been drained, suggesting something has happened to him
• The lady the knight describes

  A beautiful, fairy-like woman who seduces and entrances the knight
• The lady's appearance


  • Her hair was long, her foot was light, her eyes were wild
• The knight made a garland and bracelets for the lady, trying to romance her in a traditional way
• The lady looked at the knight as if she loved him and made sweet moans
• The lady led the knight to her elfin grotto (fairy cave) where she wept and sighed
• The lady lulled the knight to sleep, casting a spell on him
• The knight dreamed of pale kings, princes and warriors who had been enthralled by the lady
• The victims cried "La belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall", meaning the lady has ensnared the knight
• The knight wakes to find himself alone on the cold hillside, abandoned and loitering
• The poem ends on a dark, gloomy and ominous note, warning against beautiful but dangerous femme fatales