3 posts tagged “jw waterhouse”
O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, | |
| Alone and palely loitering? | |
| The sedge has wither’d from the lake, | |
| And no birds sing. | |
II. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! | 5 |
| So haggard and so woe-begone? | |
| The squirrel’s granary is full, | |
| And the harvest’s done. | |
III. I see a lily on thy brow | |
| With anguish moist and fever dew, | 10 |
| And on thy cheeks a fading rose | |
| Fast withereth too. | |
IV. I met a lady in the meads, | |
| Full beautiful—a faery’s child, | |
| Her hair was long, her foot was light, | 15 |
| And her eyes were wild. | |
V. 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. | 20 |
VI. 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. | |
VII. She found me roots of relish sweet, | 25 |
| And honey wild, and manna dew, | |
| And sure in language strange she said— | |
| “I love thee true.” | |
VIII. She took me to her elfin grot, | |
| And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore, | 30 |
| And there I shut her wild wild eyes | |
| With kisses four. | |
IX. And there she lulled me asleep, | |
| And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! | |
| The latest dream I ever dream’d | 35 |
| On the cold hill’s side. | |
X. 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!” | 40 |
XI. 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. | |
XII. And this is why I sojourn here, | 45 |
| Alone and palely loitering, | |
| Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake, | |
| And no birds sing. - John Keats, 1819 |
