By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Are you familiar with the Arthurian Legends? Perhaps you have seen The Sword and The Stone? Or The Defense of Gweneviere? Or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Alfred, Lord Tennyson takes the romance of this era, and puts it in this poem in the form of a ballad.
Who was Alfred, Lord Tennyson? What is a ballad?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Born in 1809 in a small town. Father was a clergyman.
- Went to Cambridge University.
- 1830 published “Poems Chiefly Lyrical” without much success or acclaim.
- Continued writing and finished his studies.
- Best friend Arthur Hallaman died suddenly in 1833.
- Devastated Tennyson;
- Changed his life and writing forever.
- Published “In Memoriam” in 1850 as an extended elegy for his friend.
- Prince Albert was so impressed by this elegy that Queen Victoria declared Tennyson as England’s poet laureate.
- In 1884 Queen Victoria made him a Baron, thus his title “Lord.”
- Considered the poetic voice of his age by the public and his collegues.
What is a Ballad?
- Song-like narrative poem with lyrical rhyme and meter. (Narrative means that it tells a story).
- Word Music: the rhythm, cadences and sound devices that create a song-like quality. When you read a ballad, you almost want to sing it since it has such a nice rhythm.
- Short, regular stanzas with a repeated refrain at the end of each stanza
- Simple language and rhyme. (In a moment we’ll look at the rhyme scheme).
- Often about adventure or romance; depicts emotional, dramatic action.
- Centers around one theme or one character.
The Lady of Shalott
Content
- Based in Arthurian Legend
- About how society accepts or does not accept the artist, (she is the artist who weaves tapestries of the world–scenes she sees).
- Lady lives under a curse that keeps her isolated from the real world.
- Locked in a tower; if she leaves, she will die. (Question of acceptance or not being accepted–there’s the literal meaning; but there’s also a metaphoric and thematic level to the poem).
- She weaves a tapestry of the scenes she sees in her magic mirror.
- She sees a vision of Sir Lancelot in her mirror.
- She decides to leave the tower to find her love, Lancelot, (a very risky decision since she’s aware of the curse she’s under).
- Discovers a boat and sails secretly toward Camelot. She carves her name in the boat, which indicates that she knows she might not make it.
- She dies before she arrives without ever seeing Lancelot.
- At the end, he bestows a blessing on her, so he at least, gets to see her.
Form
- 9-line stanzas
- One line refrain at the end of each stanza
- lambic pentameter (which contributes to the song-like quality)
- Rhyme Scheme–aaaa(b)ccc(b) (which means, 4 lines that end with words that all rhyme with each other. Then a line that ends in a word that doesn’t rhyme with the previous 4 lines. The first “b” ends in Lancelot, or Camelot. The second “b” is Shalott. The first part we learn about Camelot and it’s scenic beauty. The second part we learn about the curse. In the third section we learn about Lancelot and how she falls in love with him. In the fourth section, she decides to leave the tower and search for Lancelot, which ends in the tragedy of her death. But she still gets that blessing from Lancelot in the end.
Contrasting Images
- Solitary life of the lady vs. busy life of Lancelot in Camelot. How does Tennyson describe her solitary life? How does he depict the busy life of Lancelot in Camelot?
Analysis
- Tennyson’s reflection on a broad crisis of faith in Victorian England. How does a broad crisis in faith match up with Lady Shalott?
- Tennyson longs for refuge in the past, for simpler times. (The broad crisis of faith is a conflict, and Arthurian Times seem easier, simpler).
- Portrays the “lady” as having no life inside the tower (no fulfillment, no companionship, no interaction with people), but only death outside the tower. Her existence inside the tower can be categorized as a type of living death. It’s a “No-Win” or “Catch 22″ situation.
- Idea that we can never realize our fantasies, that once possible, the allure is gone. (Think of a time that you really, really wanted something, but once you got it, it wasn’t special anymore. This is kind of the idea Tennyson is portraying here).
- Fantasies cannot be fully realized because they are always better in our minds than in reality. Perhaps the Lady’s conception of Lancelot is better than who he really is, and it was fruitless for her to try to go after him. But still, he bestows his blessing on her. How does this affect this notion of conflict–that fantasies can’t be realized because fantasies aren’t reality? She how this all works into the poem.
You can read this poem and concentrate on the surface, or literal meaning. Or you can read the poem and think about the metaphorical meaning.
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs 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
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.”
