“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” seems very enigmatic at first. The more one dwells on it, the more it seems suffused with tragedy. The vision of the death-pale kings, princes and warriors is haunting to the imagination. The cry, “La belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall,” coming from their starv’d lips in the gloom, is a horrific cry of belated warning from the world of the dead victims. It is likewise haunting to the imagination. The more I read and re-read the poem, the more I got a sense that it had a very personal meaning for Keats, but a specific meaning still eluded me until I began reading his letters to Fanny Brawne. Then the whole, profoundly sad story became clear.

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