Page 2, Words that Speak

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

The mirror's sights are described as "magic": they permit to the Lady of having a picture of the outside world.

Exercise 3

1. In the same stanza 4 lines rhyme on the same sound. They are consecutive. There are in each stanza 2 lines that work as a refrain: line 5 and 9 of each stanza.

2. The musicality is a typical feature of ballads and it suits the romantic legend the poem tells.

Exercise 4

The first four lines rhyme with the same sound. There are some anaphors like "she left...she left", "she saw...she saw" and line 6, 7, 8 rhyme together. In this extract there's a sort of refrain like in Part II. The middle-line ends with "Camelot" and the last line of the stanza ends with "the Lady of Shalott".