La belle dame sans merci | O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms

by John Keats (1795 - 1821), as Caviare

O what can ail thee, knight‑at‑arms

Language: English

Our translations: GER ITA

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
   [Alone]¹ and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither'd 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 [cheeks]² 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]³, 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 wild eyes
   With kisses four.

[And there]⁴ she lull'd me asleep,
   [And there]⁴ I dream'd -- [Ah!]⁵ woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
   On the cold [hill's side]⁶.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
   Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
[They]⁷ cried -- "La Belle Dame sans Merci
   Hath thee in thrall!"

[I saw their starved lips in the gloom,
   With horrid warning gaping wide,]⁸
And I awoke and found me here,
   On the cold [hill's side]⁶.

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

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• P. Hindemith • W. Mayer • C. Stanford

W. Mayer sets stanzas 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 9-12 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information

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View original text (without footnotes)

Note: in the published form of this poem, each stanza has a Roman numeral. We have removed them. First published in Indicator, May 1820.

¹ Stanford: "So lone"
² Hindemith: "cheek"
³ Hindemith: "sideways would she lean"
⁴ W. Mayer: "There"
⁵ omitted by W. Mayer
⁶ W. Mayer: "hillside"
⁷ Hindemith, W. Mayer: "Who"
⁸ omitted by W. Mayer; Hindemith: "I saw their starved lips in the gloam,/ With horrid warning gapèd wide,"

Text Authorship:

by John Keats (1795 - 1821), as Caviare, "La belle dame sans merci", appears in Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats, first published 1820 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Harold Bronson (b. 1950) and by Mark Leviton (b. 1952), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1972 [ voice and guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Geoffrey Bush (1920 - 1998), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1949 [ tenor and SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Frederick Shepherd Converse (1871 - 1940), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1902 [ baritone and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by George Dyson (1883 - 1964), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1911, first performed 1911 [ contralto and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1929 [ SATB chorus and orchestra ], cantata [sung text not yet checked]
by John Danforth Herman Greenwood (1889 - 1975), "La belle dame sans merci", <<1954 [ tenor and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (1899 - 1973), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1934 [ tenor, SATB chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963), "La belle dame sans merci", 1942, published 1945, copyright © 1945 [ voice and piano ], from Zwei Balladen, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Oliver Ive (flourished 1895), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1897 [ alto, tenor, SSATTBB chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Mabel Jennings , "La belle dame sans merci", published 1899 [ alto or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by William Mayer (b. 1925), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1978 [ tenor or baritone, SAB chorus, and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by William Mayer (b. 1925), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1976, stanzas 1,4,3,5,7,9-12 [ tenor and SAB chorus ], Warner Chappell [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jean Neymarck (1889 - 1913), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1917 [ tenor, SATB chorus, and orchestra ], cantata, also set in French (Français) [sung text not yet checked]
by Norman Houston O'Neill (1875 - 1934), "La belle dame sans merci", op. 31 (1909), first performed 1910 [ baritone and orchestra ], revised 1926 [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "La belle dame sans merci", 1914, published 1979, first performed 1915 [ SSATB chorus a cappella ], madrigal [sung text not yet checked]
by Bryony Phillips , "La belle dame sans merci", 1976, first performed 1977 [ ATBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Wallingford Riegger (1885 - 1961), "La belle dame sans merci", 1923 [ soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, and chamber orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Reginald Chauncey Robbins (1871 - 1955), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1922 [ bass or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Edmund Duncan Rubbra (1901 - 1986), "La belle dame sans merci", op. 12, published 1925 [ SATB chorus and small orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Rhian Samuel (b. 1944), 1982/1987, first performed 1983 [ mixed chorus and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "La belle dame sans merci", 1915-6, published 1934 [ baritone, SATB chorus and orchestra ], also set in German [sung text not yet checked]
by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "La belle dame sans merci", c1907, first performed 1907 [ duet for 2 voices and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Masters van Someren-Godfery (d. 1947), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1957 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "La belle dame sans merci", published 1877 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Lily Strickland (1887 - 1958), "Ballade of la belle dame sans merci ", published 1917 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Louise Juliette Talma (1906 - 1996), "La belle dame sans merci", 1929 [ women's chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
by M. Ryan Taylor (b. 1972), "La belle dame sans merci" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Irene Varley , "La belle dame sans merci", 1933 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Alvin S. Wiggers , "La belle dame sans merci", published 1911 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Jean Neymarck (1889 - 1913) ; composed by Jean Neymarck.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "La belle dame sans merci"
HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Mihály Babits) , "La belle dame sans merci"

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 48
Word count: 284