La Belle Dame sans Merci Quotes

“And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—

The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Thee hath in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd 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 withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.”
― John Keats, LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: premiere et seconde versions