In high school, I did not enjoy poetry. I found it difficult to read, despite my appreciation for the vivid imagery. In college, though, I have really begun to appreciate English poetry. In my English Literature (1700-1900) class, we recently finished our unit on the Romantic Period and we are now in the middle of the Victorian Age. I have had the opportunity to read some beautiful poetry - William Wordsworth, William Blake, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, to name a few.
I really like Tennyson. I like his use of beautiful language. I like the stories he tells through his poems; they are not ridiculously long, which was my problem with Byron's poem "Don Juan." Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallott" was not assigned for us to read, but it was the poem before "The Lotos-Eaters" in my anthology which was assigned.
I am not going to post the whole poem - it is longer than only a couple of stanzas, but if you are in the mood for a tragic poem you can read it here. It is loosely based on Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, although Tennyson claims his inspiration was from an Italian tale. I recognized the story from reading Anne of Green Gables: Anne wants to act out the story of Elaine (Tennyson's Lady of Shallott) floating down the river in a boat. In Anne's story, the boat begins to sink and Gilbert has to rescue her.
In this poem. it is the tragic story of the Lady of Shallott. Lines 37-45 sum up her story:
"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colors gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The lady of Shallot."
One day, as Lancelot was passing, she looked down to Camelot. The mirror in her room cracked and she knew that the curse had taken place. She ends up lying in a boat and floating down the river to Camelot and tragically dying.
Normally I hate tragic love stories, but this one is so beautiful, as well as a painting that was based on the poem. This is the cover of our anthology and I love it. If you look closely, you can see Lancelot in the reflection of the mirror.
2 comments:
I felt exactly the same way about poetry. Until college, I wasn't exposed to enough of it to see how beautiful it can be. This is crazy timing b/c I just picked up a book from the library called Song of the Sparrow, which is Lady Elaine's story. I thought it sounded great and then I got it home and realized the whole book was in verse. I don't know if I can handle THAT much (it gets tiresome) but it's interesting for sure :) I guess it's also a fun shout out to Malory.
Are you an Anne of Green Gables fan? The movie opens with her reading The Lady of Shallott. I think that's part of the lure for me :) And I think it's just some weird romantic urge I have to love tragic stories. I got to see the Waterhouse painting and it blew my mind. (My art history gets foggy ... if Waterhouse didn't do the painting, my apologies ... :)
(PS - My favorite Keats moment is when he says his name is written on water.)
ah. i love poetry so much.
and lady of shallot is one of my favorites. why? anne of green gables, of course. :)
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