LADY OF SHALOTT

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And through the field the road run by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy
The Lady of Shalott."

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, burning bright,
Moves over still Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra," by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance --
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right --
The leaves upon her falling light --
Thro' the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."

 

Source: http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TENNLADY.HTML

 

 

 

 

 This poem reflects the Victorian context in an indirect way. This entire poem is a metaphor, so we must read behind the verses to find the references to the real world. The poem is divided into four numbered sections, each section is divided in stanzas. As we are going to see there are four stanzas in parts I and II, five stanzas in part III and six stanzas in part IV. The stanzas all contain the same basic structure: nine verses ( each verse is composed by eight syllables ) with a rhyme scheme of aaaabccb.

 

The first section of the poem is an introductory section, and it introduces the main elements of the poem: the curse of the Lady of Shalott ( “But who hath seen her wave her hand/ Or at the casement seen her stand/) and the medieval and magical context that involves this poem (this idea is produced by the description of the landscape, and by the mention of terms like “Camelot” and “fairy”). The fact that the action of the poem occurs in medieval age is not casual; the reason is that at this time, poets use medieval age to express that they do not like the world where they live. Their age is not mysterious, it is a very material age; they prefer the medieval age, which is a pre-industrial age were nature was not dominated by men; and this fact makes that poets of the Victorian age look at medieval time as a magical age.

 

The second section of the poem explains us the Lady of Shallot´s curse: she can not exit to the real world, she has to stay all her life inside the tower, and she can not look directly at the world, she has to look at it trhough the mirror. The topic of the Lady in the tower can be seen in two different ways; in the first way, we can think that the Lady of Shallot´s curse is a metaphor to explain the situation of women in the Victorian society. In that age, women are seen as the most important part of the family; she has to educate the children, and she has to preserve the “spiritual life” of the family: “Thus the home became a special place set apart; it assumed the nature of the sacred enclosed garden or hortus conclusus”[1]. The second way to interpret this topic is considering that the woman in the tower is representing the poet´s attitude towards the world where he lives. In this section, Tennyson writes that the Lady of Shallot does not know the world directly, she looks at the world through a mirror: “And moving through a mirror clear/ that hangs before her all the year/ Shadows of the world appear”. This could represent the dilemma between an art which represents the real world or an art which is not based on reality, a more intellectual and free art; a dilemma between social poetry and spiritual poetry. We can also see in this section references to the medieval context: “a troop of damsels glad”, “long hair´d page”, “the knights come riding two on two”.

 

The third section of the poem is very important because it is when the Lady of Shallot is taking the decision to exit to the real world because she falls in love with Sir Lancelot. This could be seen as an example of the new freedom obtained by women in that age. They have more rights and freedom, they are more integrated in public life and they work outside their home, they have the option to choose. This is a reaction in front of the situation that we have mentioned above, Victorian women react in front of their lack of freedom. The Lady of Shallot breaks with the elements that represent her closed life ( “She left the web, she left the loom/ (…)/ out flew the web and floated wide;/ The mirror crack´d from side to side;/) and she discovers the real world, the world which is outdoors ( “She saw the water-lily bloom,/she saw the helmet and the plume,/ she look´d down to Camelot”). The medieval and magical age that envelops all the poem is clearly reflected in this section by the description of Sir Lancelot.

 

The fourth section is the outcome of the situation. As we can see the section starts with very bad premonitions, the language used by Tennyson at the start of the section shows us that there will not be a happy ending: “In the storm east-wind straining,/ The pale yellow woods were waning,/…”). The Lady of Shallot dies when she goes out of the tower. It could be seen as a reaction against the new position of women in the Victorian society. Tennyson is saying to the women that their position in the world is inside their home, and if they loose their position, there is not a new place in the society for them. It is also possible that Tennyson is talking about the dilemma between social poetry and spiritual poetry. The Lady of Shallot´s death expresses Tennyson´s opinion: he prefers to an art which has not a direct relation with the world he lives

            To sum up, it is not necessary that a poem has a realistic appearance to give us details of the age when it was written. Inside this poem we can see that some of the main problems of the Victorian age are being reflected.

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

http://victorianweb.org/index.html  George P. Landow ed., 17-01-2006

 

 

 

 


[1] “Tennyson´s Poetic Project”, in (victorianweb.org), George P. Landow ed., 17-01-2006, http://victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/im/improject.html