The Lady Of Shalott Poem Analysis

The second part of “The Lady of Shallot” reveals much more of the outside world than the confines on the tower of Shallot. Tennyson uses Part II to show the Lady of Shallot’s need for contact with the brilliant world he has built through vivid description. It begins by speaking of the “magic web with colors gay” which “she weaves by night and day” (Griffith 333). This small passage is quite important to the rest of the story. By describing this “magic web” that the Lady of Shallot painstakingly spends all her time on, Tennyson is conveying a message much bigger. In this stanza, the “magic web” is the Lady of Shallot’s life. She constantly works on this “web” and it is all she has ever know. And as she weaves, the Lady of Shallot gazes through a mirror and sees “shadows of the world” (Griffith 333). And this is exactly what she is witnessing, shadows; since she isn’t involved with this outside world, the happenings are never more than images—never reality. The Lady of Shallot contently continues “to weave the mirrors magic sights” (Griffith 333). She then witnesses “a funeral, with plumes of light”, and even “two young lovers lately wed”

The themes of loneliness, exile and escape from reality are important aspects that characterize the works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. During the 1800s, these aspects differentiated him from other Victorian poets, distinguishing him as one of the most popular poets of the Victorian era. In Tennyson's poems Mariana, and The Lady of Shalott, the artists express loneliness in their isolation from the rest of the world. The following essay will compare and contrast the displays of temporary and permanent loneliness of these artists through Tennyson's use of imagery, repetition, and word painting.

One of the things that is so fascinating about poetry is that it allows readers to discover and sometimes challenge and channel their emotions as well as their understanding. A poem’s words as well as its structure can reveal many things to its intended audience. In “Myth” by Natasha Trethewey, the poems form is just as important as the words she writes, becoming a map for the journey Trethewey takes, using transitions to take us from one place to another. The nature of the poem therefor becomes multifaceted, as it encourages the reader to think about the speaker’s words and use of form and structure she uses to craft this epic story. Using form as a tool, Trethewey is able to use structure as a way to guide us as readers and the speaker across the conscious and unconscious thoughts and dreams the speaker faces in this story.

The study of any poem often begins with its imagery. Being the centralized idea behind the power of poetry, imagery isn’t always there to just give a mental picture when reading the poem, but has other purposes. Imagery can speak to the five senses using figurative language as well as help create a specific emotion that the author is trying to infuse within the poem. It helps convey a complete human experience a very minimal amount of words. In this group of poems the author uses imagery to show that humanity is characterized as lost, sorrowful and regretful, but nature is untainted by being free of mistakes and flaws and by taking time to take in its attributes it can help humans have a sense of peace, purity, and joy, as well as a sense of

Currently on display at the Kimbell Art Museum there resides a painting by the title, Portrait of May Sartoris that was painted by artist Frederic Leighton. Leighton created the artwork by using oil on canvas and did so on a canvas that would mimic her in true to life size. By doing this he made a clear and present focal point in the painting that can clearly and quickly be distinguished upon arriving at the painting. With the brightest color in the painting being her face and the darkest tones being among her clothing one can’t help but having their eyes drawn to her. By utilizing numerous elements Leighton created a painting in which the main emphasis was placed upon the subject May Sartoris, which predominantly makes up the majority of the painting.

“The Lady of Shalott” fulfills her curse by attempting to seek outside communications, therefore we must ask: “Did the Lady of Shalott ever escape her isolation in the end?” To answer this question we can think about how the lady of Shalott died. The Lady of Shalott died while “The broad stream bore her far away”, so in reality, she never got to experience contact with another human. Although, because her body was found, she died with the knowledge that people would find her lying in that boat and know she existed acknowledge her existence, instead of dying in the castle alone, never to be

Along with Mariotti, Elizabeth Nelson discusses the importance of the differing world views of the people of Camelot and the Lady of Shalott. The differing world view perspective helped me to gather the idea that Tennyson could have written with different perspectives in mind to help point out the differing world views of the lower-class and the upper-class during the Victorian era. Although Nelson was very helpful in the differing world views her main topic is more focused on the complex conception of the Victorian woman and the importance of the home.

Photography was not taken seriously as an art form, so many artist strived to elevate photography to the caliber of Pre Raphealite paintings. One photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, intervened by smearing vaseline on his lens, scratching the negative, or painting directly on his prints to elevate photography to hand-made work such as Victorian Era paintings. Photographers would also achieve this through organizing their photographs compositionally like a painter would. In fact, in Henry Peach Robinson’s photo-illustration “The Lady of Shalott”, he crimped the model’s hair to give it a painterly/wispy look. Additionally, he constructed the set and even waited for rain to take the photo. Despite the negative view of photography at the time, it

Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott is a ballad involving a young woman who wishes to break free of her restricting lifestyle. With her curse she continues to weave the images from her mirror, only stopping when she sees Sir Lancelot and decides to confess her love. Ultimately, her goal remained unfulfilled as she dies on her journey to Camelot and is only remembered as a very pretty woman. Why would Tennyson write a ballad about the death of an innocent woman? Why would he allow her to see the happiness only to punish her for trying to attain it? There are many speculations, but the biggest comparison involved the women of the early nineteenth century. By looking into Tennyson's characters and his use of symbols throughout the ballad,

Lord Alfred Tennyson is a Victorian poet who was born in Somersby, England in 1809. Tennyson was known for his dramatic writings, which represented the Victorian period. The way Tennyson wrote poetry was dramatically changed after the death of his dear friend, Arthur Henry Hallam in 1833. In honor of Hallam, Lord Alfred Tennyson dedicated In Memoriam to his deceased friend. In the poem, In Memoriam, Tennyson describes the grief and misery he felt in the poem in section LXVIII by explaining the amount of grief he feels, particularly when he is trying to sleep. Throughout the poem however, in section LXXXII, he is able to start overcoming the sadness and begins to move on. By the time Tennyson reaches section LXXXV, he wants to open up to new friends. This poem explains the years to follow after the death of Hallam; in sections LXVIII, LXXXII, and LXXXV Tennyson is at different stages of grief and mourning.

The ending of Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott” is simply heartbreaking. Tennyson’s voice remains absent throughout the poem, making it difficult to truly distinguish how Lancelot feels about the Lady when she washes ashore. He simply gazes down at her and notices “a lovely face” (1166). This is a feeble response to the risk the Lady of Shalott took in encountering the Knight. The Lady knowing her curse gazes at the village daily life from her mirror, as she weaves. Though the lady states “I am half sick of shadows” (1163), she grew tired of encountering the world through the mirror. Still she steadily remained the will power to continue to weave and watch as the world continues without her. However, she faces her curse, or quite literally

The famous poem “The Lady of Shalott” opens with the speaker (or singer) giving the setting of the story. The lady of Shalott lives in a tower on the island of Shalott that overlooks Camelot. Although no one has seen this woman, the people of Camelot still believe in her existence. The reapers refer to her as a beautiful fairy. Others refer to her as the mysterious woman in the tower. The citizens do not know much of her other than she is rumored to spend her days weaving and singing to her heart’s content.

The interest for medieval romantics came about in Early Modern Europe; this was known as the Romantic Period. This period consisted of a literary movement which produced many artistic works that were thought to have a historical basis. Two of these works were Le Morte d’Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory, and “The Lady of Shalott,” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Although the works Le Morte d’Arthur and “The Lady of Shalott” convey differences in chivalric codes, they share similarities in the view of death through the disheartening language used to project a tragedy as well as the foreshadowing elements from the main character’s predestined fate.

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

Tennyson portrays the isolation of women through the reoccurring theme of Romanticism, this is shown through the poet’s constant associations with nature being the centre of the poem. The poet focuses more on the surroundings of the main character as she lives “By the island in the river…And the silent isle embowers The Lady of Shalott.” Tennyson presents the speaker to hide the details of the actual lady, her imprisonment and the curse which leads us to believe she is a mystery as the nature around her seems overpowering and consuming her. Tennyson portrays the lady in the poem to be an embodiment of a typical woman of the contemporary culture as he describes ‘A charmed web’ which the woman is ‘weaving, either night or day’. The ‘web’ can be a symbol of slavery but also a symbol of creativity and possibility. When the woman tries to turn away from the web she refuses to be a slave and ultimately