O What Can Ail Thee?
by James McCormack
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Dimensions
42.000 x 29.700 cm.
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Title
O What Can Ail Thee?
Artist
James McCormack
Medium
Painting - Acrylic On Paper
Description
O What Can Ail Thee, Knight at arms, Alone and palely loitering?
("La Belle Dame sans Merci" - Keats)
Full series is in La Belle Dame Sans Merci Collection
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
O 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 lullèd 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
Thee hath in thrall!’
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd 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.
Uploaded
June 10th, 2022
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Comments (7)
Lindley Johnson
This is extraordinary, James.
James McCormack replied:
Thank you Lindley, one of a series of 21 plus two sketches, if you haven't seen the collection it's "La Belle Dame sans Merci". I produced a video of them, next step is a poster of all 21 together.