How Does Alfred Tennyson Tell the Story in “the Lady of Shallot

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How does Alfred Tennyson tell the story in “The Lady of Shallot”? The lady of shallot is one of Alfred Tennyson’s most famous poems, split into four stanzas, which are nine lines long each. It is written about the mysterious lady of shallot, set in a small island just down from Camelot; a famous back setting for King Arthur and the knights of Camelot legend. The lady is trapped in her house by an unknown curse that forbids her to look down to Camelot so she passes her days weaving and looking at her mirrors reflection to see out the window. This all changes one day when she is so mesmerized by Lancelot , a local knights, handsomeness and looks at him effectively breaking the curse, she begins a journey down the river unfortunately dying by the time she gets to Camelot and never getting to meet Lancelot. The poem begins with the description of “Long fields of barley and of rye” in the town of Camelot, we then see a contrast when the speaker then a couple of lines after describes the actual town as “many-tower'd Camelot” which gives us the complete opposite idea that the town is somewhat industrial and busy. We are then introduced to the small island of shallot, where there is a lot of beauty illustrated and the description is of that a magical land, yet if we look closer we can see that the reader gets a feel for the separation of the lady of shallot and her threatening destiny in the imagery of the flowers and natural surroundings. This can be seen in the lines of “Willows whiten, aspens whiten and aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver. The fear associated with the words “quiver” and “shiver” suggest they are foreshadowing what danger lies ahead with the lady of shallot. We also see her living arrangements described as “Four grey walls, and four grey towers” this makes it seem as though it is a prison and makes the reader feel she is imprisoned in her own

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