The lady of Shalott

I am half-sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott

Tennyson wrote two versions of the poem, one published in 1833, of twenty stanzas, the other in 1842 of nineteen stanzas. It was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as recounted in a thirteenth-century Italian novella titled Donna di Scalotta (No. LXXXII in the collection Cento Novelle Antiche), with the earlier version being closer to the source material than the later.[1] Tennyson focused on the Lady's "isolation in the tower and her decision to participate in the living world, two subjects not even mentioned in Donna di Scalotta."[2]

[edit] Synopsis

The first four stanzas describe a pastoral setting. The Lady of Shalott lives in an island castle in a river which flows to Camelot, but little is known about her by the local farmers. And by the moon the reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy, Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott." Stanzas five to eight describe the lady's life. She suffers from a mysterious curse, and must continually weave images on her loom without ever looking directly out at the world. Instead, she looks into a mirror which reflects the busy road and the people of Camelot which pass by her island. She knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott. The reflected images are described as "shadows of the world," a metaphor that makes clear that they are a poor substitute for seeing directly ("I am half-sick of shadows.") Stanzas nine to twelve describe "bold Sir Lancelot" as he rides by, and is seen by the lady. 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. The remaining seven stanzas describe the effect on the lady of seeing Lancelot; she stops weaving and looks out of her window toward Camelot, bringing about the curse.

Illustration by W. E. F. Britten for a 1901 edition of Tennyson's poems Out flew the web and floated wideThe 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. She dies before arriving at the palace. Among the knights and ladies who see her is Lancelot, who thinks she is lovely. "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."

[edit] Themes
According to scholar Anne Zanzucchi, "[i]n a more general sense, it is fair to say that the pre-Raphaelite fascination with Arthuriana is traceable to Tennyson's work".[2] Tennyson's biographer Leone Ormonde finds the Arthurian material is "Introduced as a valid setting for the study of the artist and the dangers of personal isolation". Modern critics[citation needed] consider "The Lady of Shalott" to be representative of the dilemma that faces artists, writers, and musicians: to create work about and celebrate the world, or to enjoy the world by simply living in it. Feminist critics[citation needed] see the

poem as concerned with issues of women's sexuality and their place in the Victorian world. The fact that the poem works through such complex and polyvalent symbolism indicates an important difference between Tennyson's work and his Arthurian source material.[original research?] While Tennyson's sources tended to work through allegory, Tennyson himself did not. Critics such as Hatfield[citation needed] have suggested that The Lady of Shalott is a representation of how Tennyson viewed society; the distance at which other people are in the lady's eyes is symbolic of the distance he feels from society. The fact that she only sees them through a window pane is significant of the way in which Shalott and Tennyson see the worldin a filtered sense. This distance is therefore linked to the artistic licence Tennyson often wrote about.

[edit] Illustrations of the poem

Hunt's Lady of Shalott

Waterhouse's "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows," Said the Lady of Shalott The poem was particularly popular amongst artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who shared Tennyson's interest in Arthuriana; several of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood made paintings based on episodes from the poem.

The 1857 Moxon's edition of Tennyson's works was illustrated by William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Hunt depicted the moment when the Lady turns to see Lancelot. Rossetti depicted Lancelot's contemplation of her 'lovely face'. Neither illustration pleased Tennyson, who took Hunt to task for depicting the Lady caught in the threads of her tapestry, something which is not described in the poem. Hunt explained that he wanted to sum up the whole poem in a single image, and that the entrapment by the threads suggested her "weird fate". The scene fascinated Hunt, who returned to the composition at points throughout his life, finally painting a large scale version shortly before his death. He required assistants, as he was too frail to complete it himself. This deeply conceived evocation of the Lady, ensnared within the perfect rounds of her woven reality, is an apt illustration of the mythology of the weaving arts. This work is now in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.

Elaine arrives at Camelot. John William Waterhouse painted three episodes from the poem. In 1888, he painted the Lady setting out for Camelot in her boat; this work is now in the Tate Gallery. In 1894, Waterhouse painted the Lady at the climactic moment when she turns to look at Lancelot in the window; this work is now in the City Art Gallery in Leeds. In 1915, Waterhouse painted "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows," Said the Lady of Shalott, as she sits wistfully before her loom; this work is now in the Art Gallery of Ontario. Because of the similarity in the stories, paintings of Elaine of Astolat tend to be very similar to paintings of the Lady of Shalott. The presence of a servant rowing the boat is one aspect that distinguishes them.

[edit] References in literature

The poem is alluded to in Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, when Sibyl Vane says, "I have grown sick of shadows." Miss Jean Brodie, in Muriel Spark's 1961 novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, reads the poem out loud to her class.[3] Agatha Christie used the line "The mirror crack'd from side to side" to title her 1962 novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, and the poem plays a large part in the plot. The Lady of Shalott is referenced several times in Bel Kaufman's 1965 novel Up the Down Staircase. Jessica Anderson uses the line "'Tirra lirra,' by the river" to title her 1978 novel Tirra Lirra by the River. Robin Klein uses the line "All in the blue unclouded weather" to title her 1991 short story collection All in the Blue Unclouded Weather.

In Diana Wynne Jones' 1993 novel Hexwood, one of the main characters, Ann Stavely, compares herself to the Lady of Shalott in that she uses a mirror to look outside her window. Patricia A. McKillip uses an adaption of the poem as a primary theme of her 2000 novel The Tower at Stony Wood. The poem is discussed and quoted in Libba Bray's 2003 novel A Great and Terrible Beauty. A stanza is located at the beginning of each chapter in Meg Cabot's 2005 novel Avalon High. The poem is referenced in Jilly Cooper's 2006 novel Wicked! where the phrase The curse is upon me is given a humorous re-interpretation in an English Literature class scene. Lisa Ann Sandell's 2007 novel Song of the Sparrow is a retelling of her story. In Jasper Fforde's 2011 novel One of our Thursdays Is Missing, the Lady of Shalott possesses a mirror that allows characters in the Book World to see into the real world ("the Outland"). Alan C. Bradley uses the line "I am half-sick of shadows" to title his book I Am Half-Sick of Shadows. Nancy Mitford referenced the Lady of Shalott in her 1949 novel Love in a Cold Climate.[4]

[edit] References in music

The first was probably a setting for chorus and orchestra by the English composer Cyril Rootham, composed in 1909-10. The only known performance of this work was given in the School Hall at Eton College on 18 September 1999, with the Broadheath Singers and the Windsor Sinfonia conducted by Robert Tucker. Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt adapted the poem to music, and featured it on her 1991 album, The Visit. The song titled "Shalott" by Emilie Autumn tells the poem from her own perspective, where she quotes the Lady of Shalott as saying "But then, I could have guessed it all along, 'cause now some drama queen is gonna write a song for me." She uses imagery from the poem, and quotes it directly: "I'm half sick of shadows". The ballad is also referenced in the song "If I Die Young" by American country band The Band Perry, in the video Kimberley Perry is shown mimicking the Lady of Shallot and holding a book of Tennyson poetry. The video ends showing the book opened up to "The Lady of Shalott". Popular folk duo the Indigo Girls reference the Lady of Shalott in the song "Left Me a Fool". Lamenting the lack of depth and substance she finds when getting to know a beautiful lover, the singer sings "you remind me of Shalott, only made of shadows, even though you're not." Dutch gothic metal band Autumn also reference the Lady of Shalott in the song "Who Has Seen Her Wave Her Hand" from their 2002 album When Lust Evokes the Curse. French composer Olivier Messiaen wrote a piece for solo piano La dame de Shalotte in 1917 based on Tennyson's poem.

Composer Jon Parr Vijinski wrote a symphonic tone poem entitled "The Lady of Shalott" (2001). His use of thematic material, complex harmonies, and rich orchestral colour seek to link the story to its mediaeval source, and the spirit of chivalry - such as de Troyes, von Eschenbach and Malory.

[edit] References in music videos

The country music video, If I Die Young, by The Band Perry has clear visual references to the Lady of Shalott. Lead vocalist Kimberly Perry holds a book of poems by Tennyson as she lies in a boat, floating down a river like the Lady of Shalott. As her recumbent form within the boat drifts downstream, Perry sings:

Sink me in the river, at dawn Send me away with the words of a love song The boat in the Perry video is similar to some illustrations, such as the image by W. E. F. Britten. The very last scene of the video shows a close-up of two pages of the poem.
[5]

[edit] References in television

In the television adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Anne Shirley reads various stanzas of the poem and acts out the Lady of Shalott's tragic end as she floats down the river; lines from Tennyson's "Lancelot and Elaine" are also referenced. In the book, the poem enacted is consistently "Lancelot and Elaine". In the ITV series Lewis (Inspector Lewis in the U.S.), episode titled "Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things", D,S, ,Hathaway quotes the line "Out flew the web and floated wide". Read aloud in an episode of Upstairs, Downstairs titled, "The Understudy." (1975) This poem forms the backbone of voice-over for the recent episode "Tracie's Story" from BBC1 Drama 'Accused' starring Sean Bean as a transsexual in a highly destructive relationship with a married man. This poem is mentioned in one episode of "Agatha Christie's Marple", called "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" . Actually. the name of the episode is from this ballad, referring to the "Stare" on the face of the hostess of the party where the murder takes place.

[edit] See also

Weaving (mythology)

[edit] Notes
1. ^ Potwin, L.S. (December 1902). "The Source of Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott". Modern Language Notes (Modern Language Notes, Vol. 17, No. 8) 17 (8): 237239. doi:10.2307/2917812. JSTOR 2917812.

2.

^ a b Zanzucchi, Anne. "The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester: Alfred Lord Tennyson". http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/auth/Tennyson.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 3. ^ Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. London: MacMillan and Company Limited, 1961. 4, 23-24. Print. 4. ^ Mitford, Nancy. Love in a Cold Climate. London: Penguin Books, 1954. 138. Print. 5. ^ Music video by The Band Perry performing If I Die Young. 2010. Republic Nashville Records.

On either side of the river lie Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the world and meet the sky; And thro' the field the road run by To many-towered 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 Thro' 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. 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 The 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; And sometimes thro' 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 thro' 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. 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 back 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 taro' the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She looked down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked 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 towered Camelot; Down she came and found a boat Beneath a willow left afloat, And round 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. Heard a carol, mournful, holy, Chanted loudly, chanted lowly, Till her blood was frozen slowly, And her eyes were darkened wholly, Turn'd to towered 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 round 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."

Send "The Lady Of Shalott" Ringtone to your Cell

Please Click here to submit the Corrections of The Lady Of Shalott Lyrics Please Click Here to Print The Lady Of Shalott Lyrics Best song ever | Reviewer: Roken | 1/14/12 I first heard Loreena McKennit many years ago as mood music in one of the Highlander movies (the song was Bonny Portmore during the scene on the hill sharoening his sword), and instalntly fell in love with her, so much so that I rented the video just for the end credits to learn who it was. I tracked the album dowb to being Loreena's "The Visit", and track four on the CD is "The Lady of Shalot". Having heard it it fast became my all time favourite song, and remains so today. Telling Alfred Lord Tennyson's tale about a lovestruck woman trapped away looking down on Camelot day after day, Lorrena's beautiful arrangement and unique voice brings the woman's emotions to life in a way that the original poem never could.

If you only ever listen to one Loreena McKennitt song, make it this one. You will never regret it. **********************************88

Con Te Partir
Andrea Bocelli
Quando sono solo Sogno all'orizzonte E mancan le parole Si lo so che non c' luce In una stanza quando manca il sole Se non ci sei tu con me, con me Su le finestre Mostra a tutti il mio cuore Che hai acceso Chiudi dentro me La luce che Hai incontrato per strada Con te partir Paesi che non ho mai Veduto e vissuto con te Adesso si li vivr Con te partir Su navi per mari Che io lo so No no non esistono pi Con te io li vivr Quando sei lontana Sogna all'orizzonte E mancan le parole E io si lo so Che sei con me, con me Tu mia luna tu sei qui con me Mio sole tu sei qui con me, con me Con me, con me... Con te partir Paesi che non ho mai Veduto e vissuto con te Adesso s le vivr Con te partir Su navi per mari Che io lo so No no non esistono pi Con te io li rivivr Con te partir Su navi per mari Che io lo so

No no non esistono pi Con te io li rivivr Con te partir Io con te