The Lady of Shalott | |
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by Alfred Tennyson | |
![]() An 1853 illustration by Elizabeth Siddal | |
Written | May 1832, revised in 1842 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Arthurian literature |
Form | Ballad |
Meter | Iambic tetrameter with isolated lines in iambic trimeter[1] |
Rhyme scheme | Aaaabcccb |
Publication date | 1832 & 1842 |
Lines | 180 (1832) 171 (1842) |
Full text | |
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"The Lady of Shalott" is a lyrical ballad by the 19th-century English poet Alfred Tennyson and one of his best-known works. Inspired by the 13th-century Italian short prose text Donna di Scalotta, the poem tells the tragic story of Elaine of Astolat, a young noblewoman stranded in a tower up the river from Camelot. Tennyson wrote two versions of the poem, one published in 1832 (in Poems, incorrectly dated 1833),[2] of 20 stanzas, the other in 1842, of 19 stanzas (also in a book named Poems), and returned to the story in "Lancelot and Elaine". The vivid medieval romanticism and enigmatic symbolism of "The Lady of Shalott" inspired many painters, especially the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers, as well as other authors and artists.