La Belle Dame Sans Merci (often capitalized as La Belle Dame Sans Merci) is a famous French-derived literary epithet used in English poetry to describe a beautiful woman who brings doom or misfortune. The phrase translates literally as “the beautiful lady without mercy,” and it’s most recognized from John Keats’s ballad, where it functions as a title-like epithet and refrain. In broader usage, it can refer to a lyrical, archaic feminine figure within a narrative.
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