Poetry · Chapter
Faery Songs explained
Two faery songs: the first comforts a mourner with the promise of renewal and the faery's own ethereal flight; the second laments the impending death of a queen, as blossoms fall and a silver-winged page is sent to prepare her for a calm bu
What happens
Two faery songs: the first comforts a mourner with the promise of renewal and the faery's own ethereal flight; the second laments the impending death of a queen, as blossoms fall and a silver-winged page is sent to prepare her for a calm burial.
Themes in this chapter
Beauty and Transience
The songs dwell on the fleeting nature of life and beauty, with blossoms that fall and a queen who must die.
Sorrow and Melancholy
The second song is a dirge filled with woe over the queen's approaching death and the loss of spring's delights.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker of the first song, a faery who comforts and then vanishes into the sky.
- La Belle Dame Sans Mercy
Implied as the 'lady' or 'Queen' whose dirge is sung and who is dying in the second song.
Key passages
“Shed no tear! O shed no tear! The flower will bloom another year.”
Do not cry, for the flower will bloom again next year.
Opening lines of the first song, offering comfort through natural renewal.
“I vanish in the heaven’s blue— Adieu, Adieu!”
I disappear into the blue sky—goodbye, goodbye!
The faery's final farewell as it flies away.
“Ah! woe is me! poor silver-wing! That I must chant thy lady’s dirge”
Oh, how sad I am, poor silver-winged creature, that I must sing your lady's funeral song.
Opening of the second song, expressing the speaker's sorrow at having to sing a dirge.
“The blossoms hang by a melting spell, and fall they must, ere a star wink thrice”
The blossoms are held by a fragile enchantment and will fall before three stars twinkle.
Describes the imminent death of the queen, marked by falling blossoms.