Today, I’d like to mention the poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci” and some artistic creations that were influenced by it.
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” means “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy” and was coined by English poet John Keats in 1819. It has been a source of inspiration for works produced in a variety of artistic fields, including music, painting, and literature.
The poem briefly portrays a knight who encounters a young and beautiful fairy in the countryside, and the fairy captivates the knight and leads him to his own doom. Love, obsession, and death are the main themes. On the other hand, it is also possible to suppose that this poem is a warning of the momentary deception and fleeting illusion of outer beauty or against hopeless love stories.
The story walks around the lines between fantasy and reality and makes them blurry. The lines between enchantment and obsession.
Let’s take a look at the paintings made about this theme that I love also very much.
