The Lady of Shallot
A lonely weaver, half sick of the shadows of reality.
The Lady of Shallot is a poem by the late Romantic, Victorian poet Lord Alfred Tennyson. As the name suggests, the protagonist of this poem is the mysterious Lady of Shallot. For this entry, we will look into the 1842 version of the poem which was originally published in 1833.
Like the other works of Tennyson, this poem also illustrates the medieval England of King Arthur. The poem begins with a depiction of the road to Camelot. Near this road is the island of Shallot where its lady resides. The lady is but a mystery to others, not much is known about her. Of course, this mystery has its reasons. There is a curse upon the lady that forbids her from ever going outside or even directly looking out from her window. So there she sits all day, watching the outside world from her small mirror and weaving what she sees into a web.
From this mirror, she sees all those that roam near her tower. All are but ordinary women, children, men, and townsfolk. There are sometimes knights as well. However, one day, a knight comes like no other. It is none other than the first knight of the Round Table Sir Lancelot himself. Ah, how radiant was he under the golden sun! His armor was shining like the stars in the heavens. There he was, travelling leisurely to Camelot with all his glory. From her mirror, the lady saw this gleam of light. In awe, she rushed in wonder to where this bright light was coming from. As Tennyson puts it:
It was with such a hurry that she rushed to her window that she completely forgot about the curse. Her mirror which showed her the world cracked as she cast her gaze upon Camelot. She panicked as she realized what had happened and decided to leave her tower in which she was imprisoned in an act of defiance and rebellion. As she left and wandered around she found a boat lying next to a river. She started riding the boat along the river's course. As she made her way over to Camelot she started to inscribe her initials to the boat. She watched the world that was taken away from her in her last moments as the curse loomed upon her.
Finally, the boat reached its destination. A bunch of people along with Sir Lancelot found the boat and the beautiful damsel that lay within. It was already too late to save her as she had left this world. No one realized who she was until they noticed the engravings on the boat. It was after that they realized that it was the mysterious Lady of Shallot. Sir Lancelot prayed to God that he would lend her his mercy and grace. And thus ends the story of the Lady of Shallot.
Bibliography
Wikipedia
Encylopedia Britannica
Poetry Foundation
Images
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