La Belle Dame sans Merci

“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is a 48-line rhymed narrative poem by the Romantic poet John Keats. Written in the style of a folk ballad, the poem is structured as a call and a response. The first three stanzas pose a question to its protagonist, a knight, while the remaining nine stanzas constitute the knight’s reply. The poem was written in 1819, the year of Keats’s great creative flowering. Along with the six great odes of Keats, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” can also be seen as a culmination of the poet’s later meditative style. Containing elements of Romanticism, such as the supernatural and the wonder and terror associated with nature, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” follows a knight’s encounter with a mysterious, beautiful woman. The poem’s title is in the French and translates to “the beautiful lady without pity.” Ostensibly the story of a dangerous romance, the poem is also a thoughtful allegory about sickness and mortality.

Poet Biography

John Keats, born in October 1795, is now considered one of the major poets of the Romantic tradition in English.