15 October 2026
(22 April 2016) We continue with Part 3 of Tennyson’s poem, “The Lady of Shalott,” introducing a new player, and a disruptor, of the lady’s tranquil life; notice how this character first usurps the place of Camelot in the poem, and then the lady’s place:
A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A redcross knight for ever kneel’d
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.
The gemmy bridle glitter’d free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle-bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon’d baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armour rung,
Beside remote Shalott.
All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell’d shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn’d like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro’ the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
Moves over still Shalott.
His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d;
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 flash’d into the crystal mirror,
“Tirra lirra,” by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro’ 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.
Into the lady’s serene life rides Lancelot, the chief disruptor, and we might even call him the loose cannon of Camelot! Wherever Lancelot rides, all is turned on its head, including our lady, as Tennyson recalls this detail from Arthurian legend. He rides into the lady’s mirror, usurping the position of Camelot, and we get a long, detailed description of him. Notice how many of his descriptors are related to fire, brilliant light, and golden stars. He dazzles the lady as he rides by, singing what we should understand is a nonsense song, it is the sound that birds make. By the end of his description, he usurps the lady’s place in the poem, and we see the consequence of Lancelot’s disruptive influence: for the first time, she turns from her mirror, goes to her window, and looks out, seeing reality for the first time. She gazes at Lancelot, usurping the ‘male eye’, at Camelot, and her weaving floats away, her mirror cracks, and she tells us that the curse has taken her, but what that means, we will not see until next time, and the conclusion of this masterful poem by Tennyson. Good reading!
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