Why did Keats make the annotation in the poem “La belle dame sans merci”?

“La belle dame sans merci”, is a poem by John Keats. The title means the beautiful woman
without mercy. As described in the book, it talks about the medieval word of merces, which
refers to prices or wages. The words merci and mercy suggest a erotic economy, of granting
sexual favour for gifts and service. The love that occurs in this poem is one of a fatal nature
for the men that fall for luring women.

The first annotation is on line nine of stanza four. The poem starts of in a melancholy tone, as
it sates “and no birds sing” and “so haggard and so woe begone?”. Initially “I see a death’s
lilly on thy brow” was written which continues the same tone. Yet the alteration states “I see
a lilly on thy brow”, which changes the tone of the poem immediately. The tone now becomes
more positive.

The second annotation is similar on line eleven stanza five. The word “death” has been taken
out once again, which leads to the continuation of the change of tone. There is also a repletion
of two couplets in the fourth and fifth stanza.

The third annotation is on stanza six line thirteen. I personally feel that there isn’t much
difference in leaving it in or out, as there is more emphasis on the following line, on the word
“faery’s child”. This suggests that the lady in question has an aura or charm about her.

The fourth annotation is on stanza nine line twenty six. Initally the line was “and honey wild,
and honey dew”. Cleary using repletion to show the importance of the word. Which in my
opinion suggests the slow process of falling in love, with he imagery of slow moving honey.
However the annotation states “And honey wild, and manna dew”. Manna is a food that God
provided to Israelites during their travels through the bible. 1 The food has a sweet taste, the
word sweet is mentioned on numerous occasions prior to this reference of manna. This use of
the word is probably to resemble the sweet feeling of falling in love, which is described
thoroughly leading up to this line.

Annotation five comes on line thirty, where it previously stated, “And there she wept and
there she sighed fill sore” and been replaced by “And there she wept and sigh’d full sore”.
Fairly similar lines, yet I believe that the initial line suggests that there isn’t much connection,
as the use of the word “there” suggests there is no interest in her weeping.

The sixth annotation comes after a build up of danger in the previous quartets. Lines such as
“Pale warriors death pale were they all They cried-La belle dame sans merci”. The man in
reference appears to be in a fantasy of his own, and has a sublime feeling running through his
body.

The seventh annotation and final annotation, in the last quartet the annotation once again
influences the tone, to loneliness. As he is left to “soujourn”. The leaving out of wither shows
a more stronger man, as he doesn’t appear to be weak, as the word “wither” suggest inability
to act and surprise.

Has been suggested that John Keats did not make these changes himself, as the original copy
was found by a letter written to his brother and wife. The original version was not published
in his time, the annotated version would be published to the public. The reason for this change
could be done to make it more of a ballad, as it would be easier to sing.

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna