The Lady Of Shallot

The lady of shallot is a poem by Alfred Tennyson, based on the Arthurian legend of morte d' arthur by Thomas Mallory.

the poem begins with the setting being laid out by the first stanza:

On either side the river lie
long fields of barley and of rye
that clothe the wold and meet the sky;

To many tower'd Camelot;

And up and down the people go,

gazing where the lilies blow

round an island there below,

the island of shallot

this stanza sets out the land that the poem is based upon, with large fields and a river surrounding the city of Camelot, the repetition of "to many tower'd Camelot" shows that everyone knows of Camelot and often travel there, while the contrast of the many towers of Camelot and the island of shallot being described as "below" could possibly be a metaphor for heaven and earth.

the next stanza includes a description of the island of shallot

Four Gray walls, and four Gray towers

overlook a space of flowers

and the silent isle imbowers

the lady of shallot

the use of four Gray walls and four Gray towers, dulls your sense of colour, and seems boring and monotonous, the word "space" used in the next line shows emptiness in the island save for a few flowers in the middle, while silence shows the lack of action in the castle. this drastically contrasts with the image we receive of Camelot, everything seems to be moving;

willows whiten, aspens quiver

little breezes dusk and shiver

thro' the wave that runs for ever

by the island in the river

flowing down to Camelot;

The fact that everything seems to be moving even the slightest breeze, adds the sense of feeling that Camelot is a happy place, full of action and movement, and the word "by" insinuates that even the wave wants to avoid the island of shallot

Throughout the poem we notice huge amounts of contrast between both Camelot and shallot, but they are always linked together through the rhyme scheme of A, A, A, A, B, C, C, C, B

with Camelot and shallot linked so closely we are forced as the reader to analyse their differences and compare how we view them from different points of view.