The Lady of Shalott is a perfect example of a poem that should be heard rather than read (actually all poems should be heard rather than read). Only by hearing the poem can we really catch the beauty of it.
The Lady of Shalott is a perfect example of a poem that should be heard rather than read (actually all poems should be heard rather than read). Only by hearing the poem can we really catch the beauty of it.
Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. - Albert Einstein
I think that tennyson is saying two things, both about the artist. The first is that art is isolating, and enslaving. And second, that distraction to the artist can destroy the art as well as the artist him or her self. He may also be making a statement about the implications of love as well. I'm sorry if my interpretation seems negative.
Tennyson wrote The Lady Of Shallot at a time which marks a turn of his themes to man-lady relations. This poem marks the beginning of that phase.
The Lady, though cursed, was living a kind of somewhat contented and adjusted life in the island as is evident from the images daily passing across her mirror. Only scenes of a rustic and peaceful village life appear there. Then Sir. Lancelot passes through in his full majesty like a meteor trailing light across the sky. Tennyson is presenting the universal picture of a strong male personality passing like a storm through the innocent and peaceful mind of a girl, causing turbulence and reverberations, leading her to her final doom. The world literature is full of such characters and such actual personalities were not uncommon in the Victorian England too. The storm shook the Lady like a fallen and dead leaf and she can do nothing but follow the storm, go the way it went, to her doom. And when her snow-clad pale body passes through the waterfronts Sir. Lancelot only comments, what a beautiful face. He does not know the doom he caused. Such is the pride of man. And the Lady could not restrict and curtail her emotions at the rare sight of a passing magnificence. Such is the folly of instant love. When we view from an impartial angle, the Lady of Shalott, Sir. Lancelot and Tennyson are justified in their actions.
There is cosiderable irony in the contrast between Lancelot and The Lady. He is singinging a meaningless refrain when he appears. He is a (stereo)typical man-of-action. Not much up top. Looks good but is desperately shallow. Carries the emblems of his religion but that's all they are, emblems. Her carol by contrast is varied and full of the depth of a real life and real experiences. The woman who has only had a short burst of freedom seems to have a deeper appreciation of life than the warrior who has never known anything but freedom. He does not even know who she is at the end and can only offer a banal cliche when faced with her corpse
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