Who wrote the poem 'La Belle Dame sans Merci'?

Who wrote the poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci”? John Keats wrote this famous ballad in 1819. Its title means “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy,” and the poem tells of a knight left wandering pale and desolate after encountering an enchanting supernatural woman.

The mysterious lady seduces the knight with her beauty, songs, and apparent affection. He dreams of other pale figures who warn him that he has been captured by the beautiful lady without mercy. When he awakens, he is alone on a cold hillside, repeating the poem’s haunting cycle of enchantment and loss. The ballad explores Keats’s recurring themes of love, death, beauty, and transience.

The poem consists of 12 four-line stanzas and uses an ABCB rhyme pattern, giving it the feel of an old folk ballad. Keats wrote an early version in a letter to his brother and sister-in-law in 1819. The title echoes a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier, though Keats created his own story and atmosphere.