La Belle Dame sans Merci

For the 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier, see La Belle Dame sans Mercy.

John William Waterhouse – La belle dame sans merci, 1893
La Belle Dame sans Merci by Henry Meynell Rheam, 1901
Arthur Hughes – La belle dame sans merci
Frank Dicksee – La belle dame sans merci, c. 1901
Punch magazine cartoon, 1920

"La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful Lady without Mercy") is a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called La Belle Dame sans Mercy.[1]

Considered an English classic, the poem is an example of Keats' poetic preoccupation with love and death.[2] The poem is about a fairy who condemns a knight to an unpleasant fate after she seduces him with her eyes and singing. The fairy inspired several artists to paint images that became early examples of 19th-century femme fatale iconography.[3] The poem continues to be referred to in many works of literature, music, art, and film.

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