“la belle dame sans merci: a ballad”
by john keats
o, what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
alone and palely loitering?
the sedge has withered 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 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
which words from the poem establish the setting and mood of the poem best?

knight-at-arms, haggard, steed

lady, eyes, bracelets, song

sidelong, bend, sing, relish

honey, language, kisses, asleep no birds sing.