The Ballad of the Mysterious Muse

Who was this beauty without mercy,

this enigmatic charmer who has captured 

the hearts and imaginations of poets

and artists alike for centuries?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Frank Cadogan Cowper

(1926)

A stunningly beautiful, yet fully human femme fatale, 

 with an ingrained love'em and leave'em attitude?

Or, was she actually an evil sorceress, who

  used her supernatural powers of seduction to steal

the life's breath from besotted suitors?

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has wither'd from the lake

And no birds sing.

Oh 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 checks a fading rose

Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the mead-

Full beautiful, a fairy'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 fairy 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, wild eyes

With kisses four.

And there she lull'd 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 is wither's from the lake,

And no birds sing.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

John William Waterhouse

(1893)

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

("The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy")

 A ballad by John Keats

(1819)