Author: Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) also known as: Lord Alfred Tennyson and Baron Alfred Tennyson

Date: 1833

SOURCE CITATION

Alfred Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott" focuses on a woman who is living alone on a small island in the middle of a river. This island, called Shalott, is within eyesight of the storied city of Camelot. The river itself flows straight into and through Camelot. Great fields of barley and rye lie on both sides of the river, and through the fields runs a heavily traveled road that leads to Camelot. The woman's castle of four gray walls and four gray towers is hidden among the aspens and willows of the silent island. Life goes by her castle on the river and the road, but she is never seen or even known of by those passing by the island. Only the reapers in the fields occasionally hear her singing and whisper "'Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott.'"

The woman knows that she must not look full upon Camelot, lest a curse befall her. She spends her nights and days on the isle weaving a "magic web." Instead of looking directly at the city, she weaves in front of a mirror that reflects that city, the highway, and the river leading to the city's gates. It is through this mirror that she sees life passing her by; she observes the red cloaks of market girls, a troop of damsels, an abbot, and a shepherd lad. Sometimes, she sees the knights passing in the mirror, but she does not have a knight of her own. She continues weaving and watching in the mirror, and at times, funerals pass through in the night. However, when a young newly-wedded couple drives by on a moon-lit night, she proclaims: "'I am half sick of shadows.'"

What draws her away from her weaving and her mirror is the sight of the magnificent Sir Lancelot riding by on his steed. He is, to her eyes, a magical and irresistible visage:

All in the blue unclouded weather

Thick-jeweled shone the saddle-leather

The helmet and helmet-feather

Burn'd like one burning flame together. . . .

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 he rode,

As he rode down to Camelot.

Upon seeing him in her mirror, she springs away from her loom and web and walks three paces in the room, getting a glimpse of a water-lilly, Lancelot's helmet and plume, and Camelot. At that moment, the web flies away, the mirror breaks, and she knows that she is now cursed.

She then becomes determined to leave her island prison, in a rain storm that has come over the land. She goes down to the shore of the stream, where she finds a boat and writes her name on the front of it: The Lady of Shalott. She then sits in the boat and stares, as if in a glassy-eyed trance, at Camelot, recognizing all of her misadventure and bad luck. As it starts to get dark, she unties the boat and lays down in it, letting the stream bear her toward Camelot, her flowing white clothes waving about her in the breeze. She sings her final song as the boat winds its way through the fields and hills, and she dies as the boat reaches the first house of the city. Her boat continues to float through the city, carrying her body within it. The citizens of Camelot come out to see her, reading her name on the boat, but not recognizing her. The knights are all afraid, all except Lancelot who says, "She has a lovely face; / God in his mercy lend her grace, / The Lady of Shalott.'"

Source: "'The Lady of Shalott'," in Literature Resource Center, Gale Research, 1999.

Source Database: Literature Resource Center

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