La Belle Dame Sans Merci:
This poem by Keats intrigued the Pre-Raphaelites,
and many were inspired to paint its enchanting lady.
Luring men to their death with her sweet lips, the poem tells of one knight's encounter with her.
by Sir Frank Dicksee
(1853- 1928) Dicksee came from a family of painters, and studied under his father, Thomas Francis Dicksee, for a year before entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1871. While there, he met Frederic Leighton and John Millais, establishing his ties to the Pre-Raphaelites. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876 and became president in 1924
and like all the pictures on this page, it is entitled...
A Ballad
........by John Keats.......
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
O what can ail thee, knight at arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
I 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 were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone,
She look’d 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 fairy’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 sigh’d full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream’d--Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.
I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death pale were they all,
They cried--"La belle dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"
I saw their starv’d lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gaped 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 wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
(1820; comp. 1819)
by Frank Cadogan Cowper (1926)
(1877-1934) Painter of portraits, historical and fantasy scenes; also decorator and watercolorist, Cowper studied at St. John's Wood School. He began exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1899. Although much of his career was outside the Victorian period, he was strongly influenced by Burne-Jones and Pre-Raphaelitism. He is credited for carrying the Pre-Raphaelite ideas into the twentieth century. In 1910, he received a commission to paint six murals for the Houses of Parliament
by John William Waterhouse
(1849-1917) Waterhouse as a young boy in Rome, engulfed his mind with ancient history, myths and allegories. When his artistic talent bloomed, these topics were the natural subjects for his paintings. His paintings are known for their grand story-telling abilities, and are laced with details of his own imagination. The majority of his works were painted at his Primrose Hill Studio in London, where he painted numerous women in typical Pre-Raphaelite style
A piece of music was inspired by the ballad of Keats,
and these paintings - entitled La Belle Dame Sans Merci in F# Minor
{Still looking for a wav/midi of this selection to add}
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