Lady of Shalott Explication
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- Category: English: Poetic Works
- Date Submitted: 04/27/2011 02:24 PM
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Explication of “The Lady of Shalott”
The “Lady of Shalott” by Lord Alfred Tennyson is a rich poem about the isolated role of the artist. It is written in four parts. Each part serves a certain role in the poem and assists in moving the plot along. It is written in iambic and trochaic tetrameter which lends the poem a songlike, simple rhythm. The rhyme scheme is aaaabcccb. Both the rhythm and the rhyme contribute to the whimsical quality of the poem that makes it seem like a fairy tale upon first reading.
The first stanza, lines 1-9, offers a vivid description of the natural setting of the poem. It describes fields of flowers and grains gently blowing in the breeze and reaching up to the sky to meet it. It also places and island, Shalott, in the middle of a flowing river. The language in this stanza is breezy and light. The people of Camelot are “Gazing where the lilies blow” (7) and the mood is serene.
The next stanza however, paints a darker setting. It describes trees that “whiten” and “quiver” (10) and breezes that “dusk and shiver” (11). Though the rhythm is still very light and quick, this language creates a chilly, mysterious tone and slows the reader down to ponder the natural elements that seem to be sensing something terrible. Line twelve mentions the river again that was introduced in the first stanza but this time it holds a “wave the runs forever.” The river and its current move the plot along carrying the reader through the poem and also the Lady of Shalott to her grave.
Four gray walls and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle embowers
The Lady of Shalott. (15-18)
The gray walls imposing themselves on the Lady of Shalott indicate that she is trapped and very removed from the world. Her prison looks over some flowers, but the Lady of Shalott is unable to interact with her surroundings. This imagery paints a vivid picture of the Lady’s isolation.
In the third stanza the narrator returns to...
The “Lady of Shalott” by Lord Alfred Tennyson is a rich poem about the isolated role of the artist. It is written in four parts. Each part serves a certain role in the poem and assists in moving the plot along. It is written in iambic and trochaic tetrameter which lends the poem a songlike, simple rhythm. The rhyme scheme is aaaabcccb. Both the rhythm and the rhyme contribute to the whimsical quality of the poem that makes it seem like a fairy tale upon first reading.
The first stanza, lines 1-9, offers a vivid description of the natural setting of the poem. It describes fields of flowers and grains gently blowing in the breeze and reaching up to the sky to meet it. It also places and island, Shalott, in the middle of a flowing river. The language in this stanza is breezy and light. The people of Camelot are “Gazing where the lilies blow” (7) and the mood is serene.
The next stanza however, paints a darker setting. It describes trees that “whiten” and “quiver” (10) and breezes that “dusk and shiver” (11). Though the rhythm is still very light and quick, this language creates a chilly, mysterious tone and slows the reader down to ponder the natural elements that seem to be sensing something terrible. Line twelve mentions the river again that was introduced in the first stanza but this time it holds a “wave the runs forever.” The river and its current move the plot along carrying the reader through the poem and also the Lady of Shalott to her grave.
Four gray walls and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle embowers
The Lady of Shalott. (15-18)
The gray walls imposing themselves on the Lady of Shalott indicate that she is trapped and very removed from the world. Her prison looks over some flowers, but the Lady of Shalott is unable to interact with her surroundings. This imagery paints a vivid picture of the Lady’s isolation.
In the third stanza the narrator returns to...