MISCELLANEA

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
[With aplology to John Keats…….]


La belle dame sans merci,
Look, what your looks have done!
Your wild eyes have made me so
Haggard and woe-begone.

La belle dame sans merci,
With hair silken and long,
I want to hear your sweet voice;
Enthrall me with a song.

La belle dame sans merci,
So fresh in attire pink;
Let me gaze into your eyes
And nectar of love drink.

La belle dame sans merci,
Without you I can’t live.
I shall die at your door-step
Unless a kiss you give.

La belle dame sans merci,
I am now but your slave.
Treat your slave with some mercy;
He’s mad, he can’t behave.



* "La Belle Dame sans Merci" was a popular subject for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. It was depicted by Sir Frank Dicksee, Frank Cadogan Cowper, John William Waterhouse, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane, and Henry Maynell Rheam. Keats’ poem by this title can be viewed at

http://www.bartleby.com/126/55.html

*Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format.


M C Gupta
2 June 2011