Description:

Song Cycle: La Belle Dame sans Merci (trans. The Beautiful Lady without Mercy) is one of Keats' most famous poems and tells the tale of a young knight who is bewitched one springtime by a seductive fay. The knight gladly succumbs to the fairy's charms, is 'kissed to sleep' but then encounters a very troubling dream. Upon waking he finds that he is alone, spring and summer have fled away, and he is left to answer the probing questions of a passerby on the 'lone hillside.' The poem became a favorite subject for visual artists in the British Isles, particularly among the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. One of those paintings, a work by Waterhouse, was the inspiration for this song cycle.