La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Ben Whishaw does an amazing reading of John Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci". He also stars in the movie 'Bright Star' as the poet and is (in my opinion) an extraordinary actor; I loved him in 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'.

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by Sir Frank Francis B. Dicksee had been in my living room long before I knew its association with the poem. I love odd little coincidences like that.

Original version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1819

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Oh 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 lulled 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
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped 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 no birds sing.

Sea Song

"I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend."

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Breathe

Insomnia

photocred: MM (broheim)

MM and I share many things; an affinity for insomnia is at the top of the list.

My Saturday

weheartit

Exam time rolls around and the game of study evasion begins. The above logic is something I believe in wholeheartedly due to experience. The two or three times where I have spent hours, days and weeks studying for exams are wasted because those are the exams I fail.....without fail. ha. So, therefore, I don't study and it seems to work out pretty great for me. I can work with that. Now, the 17 page paper I'm currently working on is a different story...

Lonely Day

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Funny how a lonely day can make a person say, what good is my life?
Funny how a breaking heart can make me start to say, what good is my life?

Remember

Remember.
A smell, a look, a touch, a laugh, a push, a song, a fight, a thought, a fall, a breeze, a love.
The days that clung to your soul as you fell asleep. The sun on your skin and the kiss of the wind.
The dreams you thought must be a taste of your destiny.
A smell so strong it reminds you of him and shocks you into the day you thought would last forever.