La Belle Dame sans Merci
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2019-09-05

La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad 
By John Keats 
Bm/A A C#m/A F#m
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, 
Bm A E
       Alone and palely loitering? 
Bm/A A C#m/A F#m
The sedge has withered from the lake, 
       Bm A C#7
And no birds sing. 

D F#m A Bm
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, 
C#m Bm F#m
       So haggard and so woe-begone? 
D F#m A Bm
The squirrel’s granary is full, 
C#m Bm C#7
       And the harvest’s done. 

A Bm C#m Bm
I see a lily on thy brow, 
A E F#m Bm
       With anguish moist and fever-dew, 
D A D A
And on thy cheeks a fading rose 
F#m D
       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 looked 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 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 sighed full sore, 
And there I shut her wild wild eyes 
       With kisses four. 

And there she lullèd 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.

Bm/A: x0423x
A: x0222x
C#m/A: x0645x


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