The Lady of Shalott

On this entry I would like to share with you the poem  'The Lady of Shalott' . It was written by the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, in 1832, but this revised version dates from 1842.


Based on an Arthurian legend, it tells the story of a lady who lives imprisoned in a castle, in an island near Camelot. People know of her only because sometimes they hear her singing. A curse has been cast upon her, by which she is forced to spend her life weaving and can only see the real world through a mirror placed in front of her. She spends her days and nights weaving and contemplating the lives of the people in Camelot through her mirror. She seems to be satisfied with this life, until one day she sees the reflection of Sir Lancelot by the river, and hearing him sing she is unable to stop herself from looking directly at him. At this moment the mirror breaks and a storm bursts. She realises she has brought about her curse and is going to die. She decides to leave the castle and, taking a boat, she carves her name on its prow, and sets off . As she is dying she rests on the boat singing while the current leads her to Camelot. When she arrives at the shore, she is already dead. A scared crowd gathers around her, and among them is Sir Lancelot, who prays for god to have mercy on her soul.

Most agree this poem to be really about art and life, the Lady of Shalott representing the isolated artist who finds a tragic death (which would be really the death of creativity) when getting involved with the real world.

Here you can see a beautiful painting by John William Waterhouse based on this poem.