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"The Lady of Shalott" is a romantic poem by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
The subject of the poem is a woman who is cursed to remain in a tower on an island in a river near Camelot. She is able to see the world only through its reflection in a mirror. The shadowy glimpses of life beyond the tower tempt her to look, although she knows that to do so will bring the curse to its unknown end.
She finally succumbs to temptation and looks directly out when Sir Lancelot rides past the tower singing.
- 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 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 through the room,
- She saw the water-lily 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.
She leaves the tower and sets herself afloat in a boat, chanting a mournful song, dying as she sings.
Some consider "Lady of Shalott" to be representative of the dilemma that faces artists, writers, and musicians: to create work about and celebrating the world, or to enjoy the world by simply living in it.
In 1894, the poem inspired John William Waterhouse to paint the Lady of Shallott adrift in her funereal boat (illustration, above right). At the same time William Holman Hunt was at work on his own deeply conceived evocation of the Lady Elaine, ensnared within the prefect rounds of her woven reality (illustration, above left), an apt illustration of the mythology of the weaving arts. The poem also inspired Anne Shirley, in Anne of Green Gables, to board a row boat. The poem was also performed in an adbridged format by celtic artist Loreena McKennitt in her album "The Visit".
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