The Lady of Shalott Alfred Tennyson A Victorian Ballad "The Lady of Shalott" is a Victorian ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Like his other early poems - "Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere" and "Galahad" - the poem recasts Arthurian subject matter loosely based on medieval sources. Tennyson wrote two versions of the poem, one published in 1833, of twenty stanzas, the other in 1842 of nineteen stanzas. The poem was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as recounted in a ...
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The Lady of Shalott Alfred Tennyson A Victorian Ballad "The Lady of Shalott" is a Victorian ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Like his other early poems - "Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere" and "Galahad" - the poem recasts Arthurian subject matter loosely based on medieval sources. Tennyson wrote two versions of the poem, one published in 1833, of twenty stanzas, the other in 1842 of nineteen stanzas. The poem was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as recounted in a thirteenth-century Italian novella titled Donna di Scalotta (No. LXXXII in the collection Cento Novelle Antiche), with the earlier version being closer to the source material than the later. Tennyson focused on the Lady's "isolation in the tower and her decision to participate in the living world, two subjects not even mentioned in Donna di Scalotta." Feminist critics see the poem as concerned with issues of women's sexuality and their place in the Victorian world. Critics argue that "The Lady of Shalott" centers around the temptation of sexuality and her innocence preserved by death. Christine Poulson discusses a feminist viewpoint and suggests: "the Lady of Shalott's escape from her tower as an act of defiance, a symbol of female empowerment...". Based on Poulson's view, escaping from the tower allows for the Lady of Shalott to emotionally break free and come into terms with female sexuality. The depiction of death has also been interpreted as sleep. Critic Christine Poulson says that sleep has a connotation of physical abandonment and vulnerability, which can either suggest sexual fulfillment or be a metaphor for virginity. Fairytales, such as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, have traditionally depended upon this association. So, as related to the Lady of Shalott, Poulson says: "for in death [she] has become a Sleeping Beauty who can never be wakened, symbols of perfect feminine passivity."
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