Alfred Lord Tennyson The Lady Of Shalott English Literature Essay
A well-known ballad by Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott, describes the loneliness of a woman in a tower cut off from the life and experiences she longs for. She struggles to live her life the way she would have wanted because she is bound by a curse from which she knows no consequences. The Lady of Shalott. She lives with little joy or fear. Over the water, running closer, The sheep's bell rings in her ear. Before her hangs a mirror bright, Reflecting tower d Camelot. And as the maze web swirls, she sees the sullen village quarrels, and the red cloaks of market girls. Shalott is an island, the island paradise that Tennyson also uses in the Lotos Eaters. This paradise island is the poet's imaginative heaven. The Lady of Shalott symbolizes the retired artist or poet, living in the ivory tower, her web, the poet's work of art and the curse, the contact with harsh reality.