Despite the fact that she is aware that it is forbidden, she gazes out the window at him. She eventually finds Sir Lancelot riding alone in his reflection. In her mirror, the Lady sees regular people, loving couples, and knights in pairs. Farmers living on her island hear her singing and recognise her, but they never see her. She is forbidden by magic to look straight at the outside world. Her job is to use a mirror to view the world outside her castle window and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. The Lady of Shallot is a mystical lady who resides alone on an island above King Arthur’s Camelot. The new book included a significantly updated version of “The Lady of Shallot,” which is the version currently studied. In 1842, he published a new volume, likewise titled Poems, to widespread critical acclaim. For an extended stretch of time, during what became known as “the ten years’ silence,” nothing by Tennyson was published. Tennyson’s greatest friend died the following year, 1833, which upset the poet as much as anything else in his life.

Tennyson had gained widespread critical praise and national prizes up to that point, but critics severely lambasted the 1832 collection, primarily due to poems such as “The Lady of Shallot” that dealt with mythical settings rather than actual ones.

Tennyson first published this poem in 1832, when he was 23 years old, in a compilation titled Poems. The boat cruises through Camelot, and while all of the knights make the sign of the cross upon seeing a corpse pass, Lancelot remarks, “She has a lovely face.” She dies as she drifts along, singing and observing all of the sights that were previously forbidden to her. As a result, she leaves the tower, locates a boat by the river, writes “The Lady of Shallot” on the boat’s side, and floats downstream toward Camelot. The woman walks over to the window and looks right out, and the moment she does, she realises she has been cursed. Sir Lancelot passes by one day, looking dashing and handsome in his gleaming armour and singing. The woman is content to weave, but is weary of viewing life just through the lens of reflection. However, she is cursed the woman is unaware of the source of the curse, but she is aware that she is unable to look straight out the window, and thus views the themes of her artwork through a mirror beside her. Each day, the woman weaves a tapestry depicting the scene visible from her window, which includes Camelot. “The Lady of Shallot” is the narrative of a woman who lives in a tower on the island of Shallot, which is connected to Camelot by a river and a road.

The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Tennyson