The Lady of Shalott (1832)

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

Part I

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

And thro’ the field the road runs by

To many-tower’d Camelot;

The yellow-leaved waterlily

The green-sheathed daffodilly

Tremble in the water chilly

Round about Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens shiver.

The sunbeam showers break and quiver

In the stream that runneth ever

By the island in the river

Flowing down to Camelot.

Four gray walls, and four gray towers

Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers

The Lady of Shalott.

Underneath the bearded barley,

The reaper, reaping late and early,

Hears her ever chanting cheerly,

Like an angel, singing clearly,

O’er the stream of Camelot.

Beneath the moon, the reaper weary

Listening whispers, ‘ ‘Tis the fairy,

Lady of Shalott.’

The little isle is all inrail’d

With a rose-fence, and overtrail’d

With roses: by the marge unhail’d

The shallop flitteth silken sail’d,

Skimming down to Camelot.

A pearl garland winds her head:

She leaneth on a velvet bed,

Full royally apparelled,

The Lady of Shalott.

Part II

No time hath she to sport and play:

A charmed web she weaves always.

A curse is on her, if she stay

Her weaving, either night or day,

To look down to Camelot.

She knows not what the curse may be;

Therefore she weaveth steadily,

Therefore no other care hath she,

The Lady of Shalott.

She lives with little joy or fear.

The sheepbell tinkles in her ear.

Before her hangs a mirror clear,

Reflecting tower’d Camelot.

And as the mazy web she whirls,

She sees the surly village churls,

And the red cloaks of market girls

Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,

An abbot on an ambling pad,

Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,

Or long-hair’d page in crimson clad,

Goes by to tower’d Camelot:

And sometimes thro’ the mirror blue

The knights come riding two and two:

She hath no loyal knight and true,

The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror’s magic sights,

For often thro’ the silent nights

A funeral, with plumes and lights

And music, came from Camelot:

Or when the moon was overhead

Came two young lovers lately wed;

‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said

The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,

He rode between the barley-sheaves,

The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves,

And flam’d upon the brazen greaves

Of bold Sir Lancelot.

A red-cross 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 from 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 from Camelot.

As often thro’ the purple night,

Some bearded meteor, trailing light,

Moves over green 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 from Camelot.

From the bank and from the river

He flash’d into the crystal mirror,

‘Tirra lirra, tirra lirra:’

Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom

She made three paces thro’ the room

She saw the water-flower 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.

Part IV

In the stormy east-wind straining,

The pale yellow woods were waning,

Heavily the low sky raining

Over tower’d Camelot;

Outside the isle a shallow boat

Beneath a willow lay afloat,

Below the carven stern she wrote,

The Lady of Shalott.

A cloudwhite crown of pearl she dight,

All raimented in snowy white

That loosely flew (her zone in sight

Clasp’d with one blinding diamond bright)

Her wide eyes fix’d on Camelot,

Though the squally east-wind keenly

Blew, with folded arms serenely

By the water stood the queenly

Lady of Shalott.

With a steady stony glance—

Like some bold seer in a trance,

Beholding all his own mischance,

Mute, with a glassy countenance—

She look’d down to Camelot.

It was the closing of the day:

She loos’d the chain, and down she lay;

The broad stream bore her far away,

The Lady of Shalott.

As when to sailors while they roam,

Rising and dropping with the foam,

From dying swans wild warblings come,

Blown shoreward; so to Camelot

Still as the boathead wound along

The willowy hills and fields among,

They heard her chanting her deathsong,

The Lady of Shalott.

A longdrawn carol, mournful, holy,

She chanted loudly, chanted lowly,

Till her eyes were darken’d wholly,

And her smooth face sharpen’d slowly,

Turn’d to tower’d Camelot:

For ere she reach’d upon the tide

The first house by the water-side,

Singing in her song she died,

The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,

By garden wall and gallery,

A pale, pale corpse she floated by,

Deadcold, between the houses high,

Dead into tower’d Camelot.

Knight and burgher, lord and dame,

To the planked wharfage came:

Below the stern they read her name,

The Lady of Shalott.

Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire, and guest.

There lay a parchment on her breast,

That puzzled more than all the rest,

The wellfed wits at Camelot.

‘The web was woven curiously,

The charm is broken utterly,

Draw near and fear not,—this is I,

The Lady of Shalott.’

The poem “The Lady of Shalott was originally written in 1832 by Lord Alfred Tennyson. The poem was
revised and published in 1942. Lord Alfred Tennyson claimed that he based the poem on an old Italian
romance. However, the poem is similar to the story of the Maid of Astolat in Morte d’Arthur by Malory.

The poem includeincludees a reference to the Arthurian legend, and “Shalott” appears to be very close
to “Astolat” in Malory’s work.

The charm of the poem is rooted in its elusiveness and mastery. The poem “The Lady of Shalott” is about
the conflict between life and art. There is a Lady who sings in a remote tower and wears a magic web
that appears to represent the artistic isolation from the activity and bustle of life. When she sets her art
aside and gaze down to the real world, she meets her tragic end and curse befall on her.

Thus, the poem captures the conflict between the desire of an artist for social involvement and his or
her skepticism if her act is viable for the one who is dedicated to art. The poem also appears to express
the personal dilemma for Tennyson as an artist. Tennyson feels obliged to look for a subject matter
outside the world of his own mind.

He wants to talk about his own immediate experiences, comment on history, politics, and humanity.
However, he feared that the expansion of subjection matter to the broader territories would destroy his
magic of poetry.

Part One and Part Four of the poem focus on the Lady of Shalott from the perspective of the outside
world. While Part Two and Part Three of the poem deals with how Lady Shalott views the world.

SUMMARY OF LADY SHALOTT

The poem opens with the description of a road and river that crosses the long fields of rye and barley
and reaches the town of Camelot. While traveling along the road, the people of town look towards an
island known as Shalott. The island lies further down the river. The island contains several flowers and
plants. It includes aspens, lilies, and willows. A lady, known as Lady of Shalott, is imprisoned on an island
in a building made up of “four gray walls and four gray towers.”

Along the edge of the river to Camelot, there are heavy barges and light open boat sail. However, no
one heard or seen of the Lady living on the island. She is only heard by the reapers who harvest barley.
They hear the echo of her singing. At night time, only the tired reaper hear singing and whispering, “‘Tis
the fairy Lady of Shalott.”

PART II:

The Lady of Shalott is weaving a colorful, magical web. She has heard someone saying that if she looks
down at Camelot, a curse will befall on her. However, she is not aware of what the curse would be.
Therefore, she only focuses on her weaving and does not lift her eyes.

While weaving, a mirror is hanging before her. In this mirror, she sees the shadows of the world. These
shadows include highway roads that pass through fields, the peasants of the town, and the eddies in the
river. She also sees a group of damsels, a young shepherd, an abbot, and a page dressed in crimson,
occasionally.

She also sees a pair of knights riding on a horse, even though she has no loyal knight of her to court her.
Despite all these things, she enjoys her solitariness and her weaving. When she sees a pair of newlyweds
or a funeral procession, she expresses her frustration with the world of shadows.

PART III:

A knight comes in a brass armor riding through the fields of barley. The sun is shining on his brass armor
and making it shine. When he rides, the gems in the bridle of his horse glitter like a constellation of stars.
The bells ring. The knight hangs his sash. His armor makes noise when he runs alongside the remote and
isolated island of Shalott.

The jewel on the saddle of the knight shines in the blue and unclouded weather. This makes him look
like a meteor in a purple sky. In the sunlight, his forehead glows. Under his helmet, his black curly hair
flows out. When he passes by the rivers, he sees his image flashes into the mirror of the Lady of Shalott.
He Instantly cries, “tirra lirra.” The Lady stops weaving the web when he hears and sees the knight. The
mirror cracks, and the wed flies out of the room. The Lady proclaims her doom as she says: “The curse is
come upon me.”

PART IV:

The sky breaks out in storms and rain. The Lady of Shalott leaves her tower and goes down. She finds a
boat. She writes “The Lady of Shalott” around the bow of the boat. She looks downstream to the town
of Camelot as if the prophet is foreseeing his misfortunes. She lies in the boat in the evening, and the
stream carries her to Camelot.

The Lady wears a white shawl and sings her last while sailing down to Camelot. She continues singing
until her blood freezes, and she dies. All the lords, knights, and ladies emerge to see the Lady when her
boat sails silently to Camelot. They read her name and start fearing.

Lancelot, the brave knight, is only able to push aside the crowd and closely look at the dead maiden. He
remarks: “She has a lovely face; God in his mercy lend her grace.”

CHARACTERS IN LADY SHALOTT

THE LADY OF SHALOTT

The title character of the poem, the Lady of Shalott is a dynamic character in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s
poem. Over the course of the poem, she grows as a person. When the poem opens, the Lady is living a
routine life isolated in a tower on the island of Shalott.

Even though she is isolated, she is stuck in one place that it is not possible for her to come to the
window of a tower. No one can see her. However, people can hear her singing.

The Lady of Shalott Is constantly weaving the web. She is under the curse, and if she stops weaving, the
curse will take effect. Moreover, she is not permitted to look at the world outside or look down at
Camelot as a part of the curse. She is given a lot to deal with. She has a mirror that reflects the shadows
of the world beyond the window.
She weaves the sights of the shadows she sees into the tapestry. She appears to be satisfied to do so.
However, one night she sees a newlywed couple in the mirror. This frustrates her and says that “I am
half sick of shadows.”

She soon sees and hears a passerby who makes her more frustrated with her imprisoned condition. A
knight, Sir Lancelot, passes by singing and shining. She leaves weaving to look at the handsome man. The
mirror cracks as the look breaks. She instantly perceives that the curse has started its effect. Instead of
lamenting her fate, she decides to make use of the time left to her.

The Lady Instantly leaves the tower and gets a boat. She inscribes the bow of the boat with her name
and starts floating towards Camelot. She has a glassy stare because she knows that he is doomed. While
drifting along, she is singing “a carol, mournful, holy, chanted loudly, chanted lowly.”

The holy chant of the Lady is suggestive of a nun. This chant is significant in two ways: she never
married, and she is considered as a virtuous woman. She sings until she is dead. The residents of the
Camelot, particularly the knight Lancelot, pays her respects, which shows that she had taken a noble and
brave choice.

The complete Information to fully analyze the character of the Lady of Shalott is not given. Some readers
can consider that she has made a reckless decision to risk her life by looking at the knight. However,
other readers can appreciate her for the decision she has taken and risk her life to grab whatever joy she
could get out of life.

The way Lancelot honors the Lady of Shalott, it implies that Tennyson wants his readers to think positive
of the heroine. She defies her unjust imprisonment.

LADY SHALOTT THEMES

THE VICTORIAN IDEAL OF WOMANHOOD

The situation of the Lady of Shalott, in many ways, is evocative of the status of women in the Victorian
period. The poem subtly criticizes the lack of agency in Victorian England. The image of the tower is a
metaphor for the woman who is locked in their homes away from society to protect their purity. The
options available to the Lady is either to confine herself in the tower or to die while interacting with
society.

The scene in which the Lady of Lancelot looks out from the window to Lancelot can be taken as her “fall
from grace.” The same is the case with the women in the Victorian era. The slightest rumor can result in
their fall from grace and social ruin. The Lady of Shalott dies because she shows curiosity and choice.
THE ISOLATED ARTIST AND SOCIETY

Throughout history, the place or artist has been long debated. One of the recurring arguments that the
scholars give is that art flourishes in isolation and damaged by obligation and interaction. In the poem,
the title character, the Lady of Shalott, can be taken as an artist as she is constantly creating a magic
web-based on the shadows she sees in the mirror.

When the poem opens, she is happy in her work. She doesn’t care about anything but her art. However,
with the progress of the story, she expresses her frustration with the shadows, her isolation, and grows
half-sick of these shadows. She is sick of creating images of life without experiencing it or being a part of
it.

She, ultimately, looks out at Camelot, and her art flies out of the window. It symbolizes the central
conflict between the human desire for connection and the need for artists for isolation and solitude.

THE SUPERNATURAL

The poem contains certain supernatural elements, even though the source is not acknowledged or
defined. The life of the Lady of Shalott is ruled by an unknown curse. The curse forbids her from
interacting with the outside world. She spends her time and days weaving a magic web-based on the
sights of the shadows she sees in the mirror. Thus, the craft is a kind of supernatural,

In the instances in which someone tries to directly react to the Lady, it is only with the sense of awe or
fear. The reapers consider her as a “fairy,” and the knights of Camelot cross the river out of fear. This
supernatural perception is a barrier between the Lady and her connection with humans. Thus, it isolates
her not only physically but also conceptually.

FREEDOM COMES AT A COST

Despite the lens with which the readers read the poem “The Lady of Shalott,” there is a recurrent theme
of freedom. The Lady is imprisoned in an isolated tower. She is subject to the curse and is forbidden to
look at Camelot except in the mirror. The Lady of Shalott is restricted to pursue what she wants.

The Lady finds out that the price she pays for looking out of the window is death. The choice is the same,
whether it is an artist looking for human connection, Victorian women trying to seek social agency, and
an ostracized person who is looking for social acceptance. When they are ensconced in an isolated
tower, they are safe. However, when they chase freedom, they cost their own life.

LADY SHALOTT ANALYSIS

In part one of the poem, the poet gave the description of the Isle of Shalott with a tall tower and
imprisoned Lady, who is fairy-like. The building in which the Lady is imprisoned is immovable and silent
while the rest of the world outside the building hums along in a cheerful and busy way.

There is a great city of Camelot beside the river. This emphasizes the purposefulness, progress, and
ever-present sense of movement and the significance of people outside of the tower. The setting is in
sharp contrast to the Lady of Shalott. There is a connection between the Lady and the inhabitants of
Camelot. However, the connection is magical and mysterious. This highlights the distinction between the
realms of the tower and the external world.

PART II

In Part Two of the poem, the readers are introduced to the Lady of Shalott. The Lady is under the spell of
an unknown curse, which forbade her to look outside the window. Regardless of her isolation and
loneliness, the Lady is happy with her condition.

She spends her time and days weaving her magic web and singing. This alludes to the wife of Odysseus,
Penelope. When her husband is away, she weaves.

The web of the Lady Is symbolic of artistic fecundity and her enslavement. The web depicts the outside
world only reflected in the mirror. The Lady sees pages, knights, girls and boys, and sometimes the
weddings and funerals, the two great events of life, as well. The scene of the wedding and funeral make
her assert her identity by saying that she is sick of shadows. Her life has become stagnant and paralyzed.
She feels a sense of exclusion and loss.

PART III

Part Three of the poem introduces the courageous and handsome Sir Lancelot. The language of Part
Three is heroic and sensual. The Lady of Shalott appears to be as entranced as the readers. She breaks
the condition of the curse and looks outside the window to see the great knight.

Some critics mention that it is because of the song of Lancelot that makes the Lady break her resistance
as the song is one of the means of expression. Through the song “Tirra liraa,” the Lady feels an intense
connection with the man as it is one of the bawdy songs from The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare.
When the wed flutters out of the window and the mirror cracks, she learns that now she is doomed.

PART IV
In the last part of the poem, the Lady of Shalott takes the boat and goes down to the city of Camelot. In
this part of the poem, Tennyson emphasizes on the troubles of the scenes of mournful Nature and
chaotic Nature in which the Lady is in.

The poet describes the wind as stormy, and the yellow woods were waning. It is heavily raining, and the
bank of the river is straining. When she reaches the town, the inhabitants are curious and fearful as they
have heard her last song and seen her paleness.

The poem ends with Lancelot paying tribute to her. He hopes that God will offer her grace. The scene
can be compared with the death of Ophelia in Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

FORM AND METER

The poem is written in iambic and trochaic tetrameter. Each section of the poem focuses on different
plots.

The poem Is divided into four sections into isometric and discrete stanzas. The first two sections of the
poem contain four stanzas, while the last two parts of the poem contain five stanzas each.

Each section of the poem ends at a moment when the description yields to the directly quoted speech.
For instance, the first section ends at the speech of the reaper while the second and third end at the
speech of the Lady. The Fourth section ends at the speech of Lancelot.

Each stanza of the poem has nine lines with the rhyming scheme AAAABCCCB. The A and C lines are
written in tetrameter while the B lines are written in a trimester. The syntax of the poem is line-bound.
For instance:

On either side, the river lie A

Long fields of barley and of rye, A

TITLE

The title of the poem refers to the main character of the poem. The Lady of Shalott is the heroine of the
poem. The main focus of the poem is the significance of the Lady. Even though the poem points out to
Lancelot and Camelot as well, the poem is mainly the account of the Lady of Shalott.
The name of the Lady comes from the legend of Elaine of Astolat. She is the woman who died for the
love of the knight, Lancelot. For the poem, the name of the Lady is changed to Shalott.

SETTING

The setting of the novel is just like that of the ordinary world; however, it is more bright, intense, and
magical than the real one. Everything in the poem is soaked in a beautiful and weird kind of magic. The
immobile and stationary trees appear to be more alive than usual as the shiver and danced. The river
suddenly carries a voice and starts complaining.

SPEAKER

The readers never find out who really put the curse on the Lady of Shalott. This makes the readers
curious. What if it is the speaker of the poem who curses the beautiful heroine of the poem. Though the
speaker of the poem is not obvious, he or she can be imagined through various things.

The speaker of the poem Is an omniscient narrator who has a birds-eye-view of the things and events.
The speaker of the poem can see and know things that nobody else could see and know. There is little
coldness in the voice of the speaker and hints that the speaker feels pleasure when the Lady suffers.

Moreover, the speaker of the poem hides the details of the curse as if she is keeping secret from the
readers. The whole poem is like a magical spell that is meant to draw the readers into a magical world.

SYMBOLS AND IMAGERY

THE RIVER

The river is the first prominent and big image in the poem. The image of the river reoccurs in the poem
time and again. It is just like the backbone of the poem as it runs through the whole poem and holds it
up. The river pulls along the whole poem, particularly at the end of the poem, when the Lady starts her
final journey. The floe, movement and the strength of the river is the key element in the poem.

The Image of the river appears in the following lines:

LINE 1:

The first image of the river appears in the first line of the poem. Everything is put in relation to the river.
The city of Camelot is down to the river. The island of Shalott is in the middle of the river. Besides the
river, there are fields.
LINE 13:

In the line 12, the speaker tells the reader about the forever running wave down the river. The readers
are made to imagine the forever running wave. In this line, the river is shown as pretty and peaceful.
However, it also gets scary sometimes.

LINE 120:

The curse started affecting the Lady. The situation gets serious. The river appears to pick the Lady up on
her distress. The river appears to be complaining. The poet employed personification as he attributes
human qualities (complaining) to a non-living entity. The personification appears to emphasize the fate
of the Lady, which is so tragic that it even makes the river sad.

CAMELOT

The name of Camelot creates the imagery of kings, knights, castles, and people living in peace and
harmony. The place seems too far away, untouchable until the end of the poem. Camelot is a place of
beauty and joy. It is put in comparison to the island of Shalott, which is lonely and sad, while every bit of
Camelot is splendid and social.

The word Camelot appears in every fifth line of each stanza. The word is used as a refrain in every
stanza. The repetition of the word makes it a far-off dream than the actual place. The place appears to
be like heaven. It is the place of which the Lady dreams but is unable to see it.

THE ISLAND

The island of the Shalott is the cut off place from the outside world and from the rest of the land. The
island is the great symbol of the loneliness and isolation of the Lady.

The Island is in the middle of all the natural description that the poet gives, the island appears to be a
nice place which is surrounded by flowers. The island is isolated, but it is peaceful.

After the second part of the poem, the speaker does not use the word island. Instead, he used the word
“remote Shalott.” The phrase is interesting as it changed the whole image of Shalott. The place appears
to be lonely and weird. As long as the Lady stays there, she will be separated from Lancelot. The island is
a kind of prison for the Lady of Shalott.
THE MAGIC WEB

The magic web is one of the most fascinating and memorable images in the poem. The imagery of the
magic web appears to be more fascinating because of the use of the word web. The word literally means
something that looks like a tapestry.

However, in the poem, the Lady appears to be like a spider who is continuously weaving the web. There
is irony. The Lady appears to be in control. She is also caught in the web of someone else. The Lady is a
web-weaving predator. She is also prey to some mysterious force.

The Imagery of the web is powerful in many ways. The web has an enchanted life, just like the brooms in
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Moreover, the idea weaving refers to the older stories, particularly
Odyssey. The wife of the hero, in the epic poem, is weaving while she is waiting for her husband.

The weaving the web appears to be an expression of talent that the Lady possesses rather than a
terrible curse. In the poem, it is specifically mentioned that the Lady enjoys weaving. The weaving the
web could be a symbol of creative possibility and freedom, a symbol of imprisonment and slavery, and
of a boring and endless chore.

In order to end her imprisonment, the Lady has to step away from the loom where she is sitting and
weaving the web. The loom is of few steps. However, the outcome of stepping away from the loom is
very great.

Her turning away from the web shows the Lady’s refusal to continue to stay in imprisonment and her
decision to pursue the outside world and life. She doesn’t care if her choice results in death.

The web Is the symbol of the weird and pseudo-life on the island of the Lady. Thus, when the web is no
more, her life on the island also ends. The fling away of the web is the image of destruction that gives
the hint of Lady’s approaching death.

THE MIRROR

The image of a magical mirror appears to be the same as the magical web. It is the other half of the pair
magical props of the Lady. Even though the mirror is a source through which the Lady can view the
world, it is not like a real mirror. The Lady sees the images, shadows, and kind of half-world.
The mirror appears to be someone who is imprisoned in a place with a TV for a year. The Lady is able to
see the world through a mirror, but she cannot interact with the world. Thus, the mirror becomes a
symbol of the Lady’s terrible, intense isolation and remoteness from the world.

When the speaker introduces the mirror in the poem, he or she calls it a “mirror clear.” Then the
speakers say that the mirror shows the “shadows of the world” to the Lady. The poem employed a
paradox with the image of a clear mirror showing shadows. How is it possible to be clear and shadowy at
the same time?

It appears that the mirror shows bright colors and people of all kinds; however, to the Lady it does not
appear to be real, the images shown by the mirror do not have the intensity of real life. The images in
the mirror are shadowy imitations.

The Lady, with her talent, can weave the images into the web that she sees in the mirror. The web and
the mirror, in this case, appear to be metaphors for the life of the artist. Both of them show life, but the
Lady cannot be a part of that life. Moreover, Artists approach things with a bird’s eye view and
reproduce life from some remoteness.

When an artist goes too far, he may become lonely and alienated. The poem appears to be a therapy
session for Tennyson to moan about life.

Ironically, the mirror shows the thing to Lady that breaks its spell on her. Everything changes in the life
of the Lady, when the knight Lancelot comes in the mirror. The shadow of Lancelot is enough to tell the
Lady that she has to change her life.

LITERARY DEVICES IN THE POEM

In order to bring richness and clarity in the texts, poets use literary devices. With the use of literary
devices, texts become more appealing and meaningful. In his poem “The Lady of Shalott,” Tennyson
uses some literary devices to communicate his fears and worries. Following are the literary devices used
in the poem:

IMAGERY:

Writer’s emotions, feelings, and ideas become apparent to the readers with the use of imagery. The
images used in this poem are:
“There lay a parchment on her breast”;

“She loos’d the chain, and down she lay”

“The pale yellow woods were waning.”

CONSONANCE:

The repetition of consonant sounds in a row is known as Consonance. For example, in this poem, the
sound of /r/ repeats in “Till her eyes were darken’d wholly” and /l/ repeats sound in “His coal-black curls
as on he rode.”

ALLITERATION:

When two or more words in the same row start with the same sound, it is called alliteration. For
example, the /th/ repeats in the line “They cross’d themselves, their stars they blest” and the sound
of /w/ repeats in the line “he pale yellow woods were waning.”

SIMILE:

When two different objects are compared to one another to understand the meaning, the use of the
word “like,” “as,” etc. is called a simile. In the line “The gemmy bridle glitter’d free, Like to some branch
of stars we see Hung in the golden Galaxy,” horse’ bridle is compared with the star constellation.

PERSONIFICATION:

Attributing human qualities to non-living things is known as personification. In the last part of the poem,
the river is shown as complaining.

ASSONANCE:

The reiteration of vowel sounds in the same row is known as assonance. In this poem /i/ sound is
repeated in the line “The willowy hills and fields among.”

ANAPHORA:

The repetition of two or more words at the beginning of two or more lines in poetry is called anaphora.
In the poem, the poet says:
“She left the web, she left the loom.

She made three paces thro’ the room.

She saw the water-flower bloom,

She saw the helmet and the plume,

She looked down to Camelot.”

ENJAMBMENT:

The clause or phrase that continues to another line. For example:

“Like to some branch of stars we see

Hung in the golden Galaxy.”

The analysis of literary devices shows that Tennyson has creatively outlined the account of the Lady of
Shalott in the poem with the assistance of these literary devices