THE LADY OF SHALOTT (pag.2-3-4)

EXERCISE 1

Owing to a mysterious curse the Lady of Shalott cannot stop weaving a colourful web and looking down to Camelot. She is allowed to observe what happens outside her window only in the reflections cast in a mirror hanging before her - in other words, she sees only the "shadows" of reality.  Yet the secluded, solitary Lady seems relatively content to weave the images the mirror captures: they are mainly pictures of people moving to Camelot along the highway like peasants, market girls, a group of young women, of knights, etc. But one night the sight of two young lovers makes the Lady feel "sick of shadows".

EXERCISE 2

Besides the mysterious curse haunting the Lady there are other "magic" things:

•·         a magic web

•·         she can see the shadows of reality in a mirror

•·         she weaves the mirror's magic sights

EXERCISE 3

•a)   In the same stanza 4 lines rhyme on the same sound: they are consecutive. In each stanza there are 2 lines that work as a refrain (line 5 and 9).

•b)   The rhythm is regular.

•c   The musical quality suits the Romantic legend the poem tells.

EXERCISE 4

She left the web, she left the loom,

She made three paces thro' the room,

She saw the water-lily 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.

You can immediately notice the anaphoric construction "she" in the first 5 lines. The same lines rhyme on the same sound. The lines 6,7,8 rhyme on the same sound. There is also a correspondence between the line 5 and the last one.