Tennyson

The Lady of Shallot

Starter

• Look at the images that follow.• What is the story that they seem to tell?

Tennyson: Biography• b. 1809, 4th of 12 children.• Father = well-to-do clergyman – some siblings had mental health problems –

‘black blood of the Tennysons’• 1827+ Trinity College, Cambridge met Arthur Hallam, became member of

‘Apostles’, travelled Europe• 1831 Father died. Has to leave Cambridge for financial reasons.• 1832 ‘Poems’ published (included ‘Lady of Shallot’. ‘The Lotos-Eaters’. Negative

reviews for dreaminess and unsuitable content for female readers. ’10 Year Silence’ begins.

• 1833 Hallam dies suddenly whilst in Vienna. Most devastating blow of Tennyson’s life. ‘In Memoriam’ begun – pub. 1849, 17 years in the making.

• 1842 ‘Poems’ published – vol. 1 = revisions of 1832 poems; vol. 2 = new work inc. ‘Ulysses’, ‘Tithonus’. Rave reception this time.

• 1850 becomes Poet Laureate on death of Wordworth• d. 1892

Exciting tapestry fact

• The weaver works from the back of the tapestry.

• So it was common for weavers to use mirrors to see the progress of their tapestries from the side that would eventually be displayed to the viewer.

The Narrative• A woman lives in a tower on Shalott, an island on a river that runs,

along with the road beside it, to Camelot and King Arthur’s court. • Every day, she weaves a tapestry of the view from her window

that is reflected in a mirror, as because of a (mysterious) curse she is forbidden to look directly on the view.

• She likes weaving but not looking at reflections. • One day, Sir Lancelot rides by, looking bold and handsome in his

shining armor, and singing. • She looks directly out and the curse strikes. • She leaves the tower and and floats off downriver, dying. • Reaching Camelot, the knights make the sign of the cross and

Lancelot remarks "She has a lovely face."

Thematic links

• Mediaeval setting.• Tennyson claimed early C14 Italian story as

source, but original has few features of Tennyson’s story.

• Clearly draws on Arthurian legends and one in corpus in particular is similar.

Form

• The poem is a quasi-ballad perhaps – Ballads are written in quatrains, use iambic pentameter, and

have a refrain– ‘The Lady of Shallot’ has quatrains embedded in its verses,

rhythmically is mostly in iambic tetrameter, and does have a refrain

• Each stanza contains nine lines with the rhyme scheme AAAAB(‘Camelot’)CCCB (‘Shalott’).

• The B lines are usually curtal or bobbed to a trimeter. • The syntax is line-bound: most phrases do not extend

past the length of a single line.

Structure• The poem is divided into four numbered parts, each ending when

description yields to directly quoted speech.• Part I and Part IV: the Lady of Shalott as she appears to the outside

world; Part II and Part III describe the world from her viewpoint. • In Part I (4 stanzas), the pastoral world outside the castle described.• Part II (4 stanzas) = the Lady’s imprisonment, the curse, people in

the mirror (often sees a funeral or a wedding, so conflating love and death.)

• Part III (5 stanzas) = Sir Lancelot. Arthurian Hero and Lover of Queen Guinevere. His voice makes her peek

• shift from the static, descriptive present tense of Parts I and II to the dynamic, active past of Parts III and IV intensifies poem

• In Part IV (6 stanzas) lush colour is dimmed by poor weather as the curse strikes. Still, at least she’s pretty.

Maternal Morbidity – female deaths per 1000 births. Allows link (visible in ‘Mariana’) between love/death in Victorian England.

Language

• Moves from static present to more active past tense.

• Vivid descriptive imagery.• Weather as metonym for states of mind.• Anaphoric/highly repetitious• Louder and quieter parts…

Language Task

• Focus on the part of the poem you’re given.– What characterises the voice and language of this section?– What key images would you select for commentary?– Write a brief commentary

Part 1 – the rural settingPart 2 – what the Lady sees out of windowPart 3 – Sir LancelotPart 4 – the voyage downstream

Contrasts and Links

• Society/social engagement versus withdrawal• Art versus life - allegory of the nature and dangers of

the human imagination.• Present tense to past tense.• The enclosed female/contemplative female vs male

world of action.• Her turn to the outside world loses her creativity, the

tools of her craft, and her life.• Artist has become art-object.• Love linked to death.