"The Lady of Shalott" is a romantic poem by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892).

The poem (of which Tennyson wrote two versions: one in 1833, of twenty verses, the other in 1842 of nineteen verses) is based loosely upon a story from Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur concerning Elaine the Fair of Astolat, a maiden who falls in love with Lancelot, but dies of grief when he cannot return her love. Tennyson returned to the story in “Lancelot and Elaine” (in his 1859 Idylls of the King).

The Lady of Tennyson's poem lives in a tower on an island in a river near Camelot, on the island of Shalott. She is under a curse: if she looks directly at Camelot, some unknown doom will befall her. Thus she watches the world through a mirror, and weaves what she sees in a magic web. The shadowy glimpses of life beyond the tower tempt her to look, although she knows that to do so will bring the curse to its unknown end. One day, however, seeing Lancelot in her mirror, she realises how sick she is of her life, and of seeing the world only through shadows and reflections.

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 finally succumbs to temptation and looks directly out when Sir Lancelot rides past the tower singing, and as she looks towards Camelot:

The mirror crack'd from side to side;

"The curse is come upon me," cried

The Lady of Shalott.

She leaves her tower, finds a boat upon which she writes her name, and floats down the river to Camelot, chanting a mournful song, dying as she sings. She arrives frozen to death, and among the knights and ladies who see her is Lancelot:

"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."

Some consider "The Lady of Shalott" to be representative of the dilemma that faces artists, writers, and musicians: to create work about and celebrating the world, or to enjoy the world by simply living in it.

In 1894, the poem inspired John William Waterhouse to paint the Lady of Shalott adrift in her funeral boat (illustration, above right). At the same time William Holman Hunt was at work on his own deeply conceived evocation of the Lady Elaine, ensnared within the perfect rounds of her woven reality (illustration, above left), an apt illustration of the mythology of the weaving arts. The poem also inspired Anne Shirley, in Anne of Green Gables, to board a rowing boat. The poem was also performed in an adbridged format by celtic artist Loreena McKennitt in her album "The Visit".

External links

• John William Waterhouse's painting of the Lady of Shalott
• The complete 1842 poem
• Side-by-side comparison of the 1833 & 1842 versions of Tennyson's poem (provided by The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester)
• The story as found in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
• "Lancelot and Elaine"
• Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott": an overview (includes e-text)
• Elizabeth Nelson, "The Embowered Woman: Pictorial Interpretations of 'The Lady of Shalott'"

See also

• Weaving (mythology)