La Belle Dame Sans Merci

What can ail thee, knight-at-arms

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake

And no birds sing

What can ail thee, knight-at-arms

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel’s granary is full

And the harvest’s done

See a lily on thy brow

With anguish moist and fever-dew

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too

I met a lady in the meads

Full beautiful, a fairy's child

Her hair was long, her foot was light

And her eyes they were wild

Set her on my pacing steed

Nothing else saw all day long

For sidelong would she bend

And sing a fairy's song

I made a garland for her head

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone

She looked at me and she did love

And made a sweet moan

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 sighed full sore

And there I shut her wild, wild eyes

With kisses four

And there she lulled me fast asleep

And there I dreamed, ah, woe betide

The strangest dream I ever dreamed

On the cold hillside

I saw pale kings and princes too

Pale warriors, death-pale were all

They cried: "La Belle Dame sans Merci

Hath thee in thrall!"

I saw their starved lips in gloam

With horrid warning gaped wide

And I awoke and found me here

On the cold hillside

And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering

The sedge is withered from the lake

And no birds sing