The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sushma ma'am's lecture notes: Introduction to Tennyson on 18 Nov 2014

Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson
1809-1892
Poet Laureate after Wordsworth
Raised to peerage as Lord in 1884

Poetry: In Memoriam, Idylls of the King, Queen Mary, Harold, Akbar's Dream, The Lady of Shalott

Simple language; classical, ornate tone - almost musical

Tennyson's poetic career analysed in terms of two works:
Locksley Hall (written in 1842) - celebrates England's faith in science and commerce
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (written in 1886) - expresses repulsion with science
[Science first seen as magic solution to end class barriers but later, it came to be concluded that science made these barriers more rigid]

W.R.T. Victorianism other works like The Princess, Idylls of the King and Ulysses look at higher education of women, reflections on life and exploration - "the promise of the journey lies in the uncharted waters"

Tennyson called "the poetic exponent of the cautious spirit of Victorian liberalism"

Tennyson articulates these conflicts:
doubt vs. faith
materialism vs. religion, eternity

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Sushma ma'am's lecture notes: Introduction to ALT's The Lady of Shalott

Inspired by Arthurian legend

Tennyson grew up in a place where castles were being rebuilt; his mother read to him and encouraged him to write. By age 14 he had written a 6000-line epic and an entire blank verse drama called 'The Devil and the Lady'

Legend of King Arthur (no proof that it's real, but nobody cares)
- protected the Britons and organized them
- Knights of the Round Table
- close cameraderie with few knights
- Sir Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot) (his right-hand man)
- Lancelot fell in love with Arthur's queen, Guinevere
- Elaine the White (of Astrolat) - unrequited love with Lancelot
- her father Bernard of Astrolat organized a jousting championship
- Lancelot somehow convinced to participate - wore Elaine's locket at her request
- injured badly - nursed to health by Elaine
- once fully cured, Lancelot asked Elaine what she wanted in return for her services - Elaine vastly offended, scorned - asked him to leave at once, he did, drama drama yada yada yada
- Elaine dies of a broken heart with a lily upon her breast
- this story is relevant because critics hypothesize that Elain is the Lady of Shalott (she's not - just saying)
- Elaine is the inspiration.
- poem may be based on Italian novella 'Donna do Scalotta'
- no mention of mirror, tapestry, Arthur, queen
- but about a Lady dying of a broken heart - heartbroken about unrequited love
- (random Victorian element) - these girls fall in love so easily because they are kept isolated from male company all their life, and so the first man (boy) they meet, they fall in love with

Questions the real and the fantastical

Tennyson's Arthuriana - 8 diff works
Prologue to Idylls of the King contains stories of the four women - Enid, Guinevere, Elaine, Vivian
Tennyson wanted to call 'Idylls of the King' 'The True and the False' to show how the true women also were involved in deceit and the 'false' were honorable and truthful

Tennyson used the ballad form so he could tell stories which would remain with the reader for a longer time

Also (wrote?) a musical mass in 5 acts

Lady of Shalott a metaphor for the dangers of isolation from society
artistic, poetic world vs. harsh, brutal reality

Look up: Morte d'Arthur
In Memoriam
The Passing of Arthur

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Sushma ma'am's lecture notes: ALT's The Lady of Shalott

not Romantic - Victorian
public and private space highly demarkated
begins with surroundings of castle - shows us what the Lady is isolated from
heightened senses
picturesque
water-lily an important metaphor - reference to original Arthurian legend

can one ever be truly isolated from the world
metaphor for isolation of the artist - must return to and reconcile with reality

contrast established in stanza 2 - colorful outside, 4 green walls

Lady of Shalott like a mythical flower - vastly beautiful but hidden

Camelot a hub of civilization
- many-towered
- glorious warriors
- world of men (people)
- common destination for ships sailing, merchants of Shalott
- everything Lady sees is headed to Camelot - fascination for the unattainable

is it an escape from or into the world?

Lady sees life and death in the mirror

Lancelot in his swiftness and brilliance interrupts the dim and tranquil Shalott
sharp contrast between reproducing reality and reality that comes blazing across her screen
= shiny is hot?

honor, chivalry, loyalty
intense, immediate, held her breath
dichotomy between what is real and what is not

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SCRIBBLED IN TEXTBOOK:

study of th artist and the dangers of personal isolation
mystery in feminism, metaphor of web
Allusions - only goddesses wove - women's role in household economy (victorian element)
Spindle a symbol of safety on fearsome roads
tapestries are historical documentation
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/tennyson-shalott-comparison

anticlimax
high idealism
strict morality

Summary from Sparknotes
Shmoop intro

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The Lady of Shalott (1832)
read aloud

Part I

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;

The yellow-leaved waterlily

The green-sheathed daffodilly

Tremble in the water chilly

       Round about Shalott.

Rustic, pastoral setting, also mention of abundance. 

Willows whiten, aspens shiver.

The sunbeam showers break and quiver

In the stream that runneth ever

By the island in the river

       Flowing down to Camelot.

Four gray walls, and four gray towers

Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers

       The Lady of Shalott.

Contrast between brightness and gaiety outside and the dullness within Shalott.

Underneath the bearded barley,

The reaper, reaping late and early,

Hears her ever chanting cheerly,

Like an angel, singing clearly,

       O'er the stream of Camelot.

Piling the sheaves in furrows airy,

Beneath the moon, the reaper weary

Listening whispers, ' 'Tis the fairy,

       Lady of Shalott.'

Weary reaper hears singing of Lady of Shalott - "fairy" signifies mystery surrounding her.

The little isle is all inrail'd

With a rose-fence, and overtrail'd

With roses: by the marge unhail'd

The shallop flitteth silken sail'd,

       Skimming down to Camelot.

A pearl garland winds her head:

She leaneth on a velvet bed,

Full royally apparelled,

       The Lady of Shalott.

The luxury of Shalott and the plush roses and silk sails of the world outside show a transition from pastoral life to the elegant complexities of genteel life.

Part II

No time hath she to sport and play:

A charmed web she weaves alway.

A curse is on her, if she stay

Her weaving, either night or day,

       To look down to Camelot.

She knows not what the curse may be;

Therefore she weaveth steadily,

Therefore no other care hath she,

       The Lady of Shalott.

If she looks at Camelot (directly) the curse will come upon her. She doesn't know what the curse is, 

She lives with little joy or fear.

Over the water, running near,

The sheepbell tinkles in her ear.

Before her hangs a mirror clear,

       Reflecting tower'd Camelot.

And as the mazy web she whirls,

She sees the surly village churls,

And the red cloaks of market girls

       Pass onward from Shalott.

Monotonous life - no hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears - no purpose in life but to weave the web. She sees village life through the mirror and weaves what she sees.

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 thro' the mirror blue

The knights come riding two and two:

She hath no loyal knight and true,

       The Lady of Shalott.

Village life and companionship vs solitude of Lady of Shalott

But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror's magic sights,

For often thro' the silent nights

A funeral, with plumes and lights

       And music, came from Camelot:

Or when the moon was overhead

Came two young lovers lately wed;

I am half sick of shadows,' said

       The Lady of Shalott.

She enjoys weaving the web but wishes she would see the real thing - not just reflections

Part III

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,

He rode between the barley-sheaves,

The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,

And flam'd 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.

Sir Lancelot introduced here - came in glittering and sparkling and bright.

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 from Camelot:

And from his blazon'd baldric slung

A mighty silver bugle hung,

And as he rode his armour rung,

       Beside remote Shalott.

And ringing. 

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 from Camelot.

As often thro' the purple night,

Below the starry clusters bright,

Some bearded meteor, trailing light,

       Moves over green Shalott.

Lancelot compared to a meteor. Apparently, shiny is hot.

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 from Camelot.

From the bank and from the river

He flash'd into the crystal mirror,

'Tirra lirra, tirra lirra:'

       Sang Sir Lancelot.

And singing.
Also, brightly colored - dazzling armor, bright red fumes

She left the web, she left the loom

She made three paces thro' the room

She saw the water-flower 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.

So enchanted by this lovely apparition was the Lady of Shalott that she forgot all about her curse and just about ran across the room to gaze upon him. Then the curse came upon her - the mirror cracked from side to side and the web unraveled. Whoop dee doo.

Part IV

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;

Outside the isle a shallow boat

Beneath a willow lay afloat,

Below the carven stern she wrote,

       The Lady of Shalott.

Pathetic fallacy - stormy weather used to set tone of conflict and danger. The Lady of Shalott is about to leave Shalott and go to Camelot; she is going after Lancelot.

A cloudwhite crown of pearl she dight,

All raimented in snowy white

That loosely flew (her zone in sight

Clasp'd with one blinding diamond bright)

       Her wide eyes fix'd on Camelot,

Though the squally east-wind keenly

Blew, with folded arms serenely

By the water stood the queenly

       Lady of Shalott.

White and pallor - ghostly, mystical aura. Her regality and elegance juxtaposed with the recklessness of the deed she is about to commit.

With a steady stony glance—

Like some bold seer in a trance,

Beholding all his own mischance,

Mute, with a glassy countenance—

       She look'd down to Camelot.

It was the closing of the day:

She loos'd the chain, and down she lay;

The broad stream bore her far away,

       The Lady of Shalott.

Appears to be out of her senses - perhaps the  pull of louuuve is greater than the force of reason.

As when to sailors while they roam,

By creeks and outfalls far from home,

Rising and dropping with the foam,

From dying swans wild warblings come,

       Blown shoreward; so to Camelot

Still as the boathead wound along

The willowy hills and fields among,

They heard her chanting her deathsong,

       The Lady of Shalott.

A longdrawn carol, mournful, holy,

She chanted loudly, chanted lowly,

Till her eyes were darken'd wholly,

And her smooth face sharpen'd slowly,

       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.

We see here that she knew she was going to her death - deathsong - as she sang her song she died - but she went after Lancelot anyway.

Under tower and balcony,

By garden wall and gallery,

A pale, pale corpse she floated by,

Deadcold, between the houses high,

       Dead into tower'd Camelot.

Knight and burgher, lord and dame,

To the planked wharfage came:

Below the stern they read her name,

       The Lady of Shalott.

Self-explanatory - rich people and poor people, nobles and commoners saw her corpse float by.

They cross'd themselves, their stars they blest,

Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire, and guest.

There lay a parchment on her breast,

That puzzled more than all the rest,

       The wellfed wits at Camelot.

'The web was woven curiously,

The charm is broken utterly,

Draw near and fear not,—this is I,

       The Lady of Shalott.'

And all these well-educated people could not understand the riddle of her introduction.