A pale knight wanders a cold hillside in late autumn, where "no birds sing." Keats's haunting ballad tells how he met a beautiful fairy lady, and what she left him with. This free worksheet has the full poem with numbered lines, vocabulary, five discussion questions, a writing prompt and an answer key. No signup needed.
Grades 9–12 · Common Core RL.9-10.4, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.5 · US Letter PDF, with an answer key on the last page
What’s on the worksheet
Keats wrote the poem in April 1819. The French title means "The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy." It is a literary ballad in twelve four-line stanzas; the short fourth line of each stanza makes the poem feel as if it is fading. The first three stanzas are spoken by a stranger who questions the knight; the knight answers in the rest.
Vocabulary
- ail: trouble, make sick
- loitering: lingering, standing around with no purpose
- sedge: a grass-like plant that grows near water
- haggard: looking exhausted and unwell
- granary: a storehouse for grain
- meads: meadows
- zone: here, a belt or sash
- relish: a pleasant taste
- grot: a cave or grotto
- thrall: slavery, being under someone's power
- sojourn: stay for a time
Discussion questions
- What season is it, and how does the setting match the knight's condition?
- How does the knight describe the lady when he first meets her?
- What does the lady give the knight, and what happens in her "elfin grot"?
- Who appears in the knight's dream, and what do they tell him?
- Look at the last stanza. How does it echo the first? What does this suggest about the knight's future?
Writing prompt
Write a short ballad (4–6 stanzas of four lines) in which a stranger meets someone who has been changed by a mysterious encounter. Begin with a question.
The answer key is included in the PDF, on its own page for teachers.