The Virtual Coffeehouse

I think what would make the Lady of Shalott such a popular subject for a painting is that while the rest of the poem is very descriptive, the reader gets very little description of the woman herself. It says in Part 1 that few have seen her. Lancelot at the end says "She has a lovely face", but that is all we get of her looks. It really is a beautiful, vivid poem, and I would think that, as an artist, to paint this mysterious woman without any pretext of what she looks like would be a tempting venture. It is assumed that she must be beautiful, and she apparently sings songs that are probably sad yet lovely. The artist would have free expression of what the lady looks like, so long as he keeps her in the context of what she is doing in the poem.

I agree with what Amanda has written. Tennyson is extremely descriptive through this piece which is one of the reasons it is so beautiful. It's also interesting how he described the landscape in so much depth, but rarely characterizes Lady of Shalott's physical appearence. The lack of details of her makes her very mysterious. Because of this, I think she is a great subject for an artist to paint because they have such an limited amount of information on her, it allows for them to interpret her in their own way and be creative.

I hadn't thought about it this way, but now that I've read this I definitely agree. Readers always visualize their own unique version of that characters they read about. Painters must find it alluring to paint their own version of the beautiful woman in this famous poem.

I agree with what Michelle said. I, too, thought it was interesting that Tennyson described the landscapes in great detail, yet he doesn't really give a solid description of the lady herself. Because of this, the reader can envision her any way that they want to, as they don't really have anything concrete to go on. This is what the appeal to artists is, as they can mold her and turn her into how they see her in their head.

I also hadn't thought about it in that sense until I read these posts. When I first read the question it really made me think...but I definately agree that to an artist, such a mysterious character, whose physical descriptions are left out would be very intriguing. It's almost as if Tennyson is challenging his readers to come up with their own description of the lady; he leaves it completely to interpretation...I love it!!

it's true. tennyson leaves the image of lady shallott up to the reader to interpret. this would be very intriguing to an artist because they have artistic license then to create whatever they can imagine. he gave people a way to create something from his words and make it their own.

I agree that Tennyson may not have included physical descriptions of the lady of Shallot to give artists a chance to represent here in a variety of ways they saw fit.
Just a short anecdote about this poem: I first encountered it as a senior in high school and I was very confused about the rules of the curse and what actually happened to make Part 4 occur. Maybe I'm just one of those people that will never get it, but her looking at people in the mirror causes the curse to fall on her? Someone explained it to me once, and I hope we talk about the actual events of the poem in class. I think that by having artists draw/paint the character and her setting, it clarifies to readers where she's looking (in the mirror or out of the window directly) and I think that it somewhat helps me understand it.

I also agree that the descriptions of the Lady in Tennysons poem are idyllic and beautiful, but are also vague in order to create an image in your mind. It allows for the poems readers to envision what they believe she would look like, or put in someone physically who they are reminded of when reading the poem. Lines like "now fold the lily all her sweetness up" focus more on the inner beauty and personality of the lady, rather than the outer appearance, which is reinforced by her intelligence and equal natured relationship with her husband. The front cover in particular captures in the background of the woman a fantastical and epic feeling that is assosciated I think with the Lady of Shallot. I think is such an interesting tale and romance, and so it is an interesting subject to paint.

Did she have a husband? I guess I missed that. I think that this poem is mesmerizing – Tennyson’s word choice is beautiful and very art-oriented. He uses colors and physical descriptions rather than focusing on emotions. He allows the reader to develop emotions out of the picture he has painted. I think this emotion that Tennyson evokes is one which may intrigue and lead artists to attempt to capture this story - the story itself is something that seems like a fairy-tale with a tragic ending. A mysterious woman is stuck happily doing the same thing day after day, being happy so long as she does not look out her window onto the land of Camelot. When Lancelot appears, the woman looks out the window and, it seems as though a sort of ‘Pandora’s box’ episode occurs – the mirror breaks and the woman sees the world for the first time. “She saw the water lily bloom, / She saw the helmet and the plume, / She looked down to Camelot.” But! – “The curse is come upon me,” cried / The Lady of Shalott.” Even this is visually oriented, but it seems (as my interpretation goes,) that since she now realizes what she’s been missing, she knows that she can NEVER go back to her blissfully ignorant ways, cooped up in a room weaving, and leaves. Side note, does she know she’s going to die, or does it just happen?

I was looking at some sites and found that this poem is not only interpreted as a visual art, but also musically. The YouTube video is a song of the poem, but only contains a few scattered verses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU_Tn-HxULM

This second one is an interesting song about the Lady of Shalott, but doesn’t use lines from the poem. Thought I’d share it anyways…
http://imomus.com/chastitybelt.mp3

Also, here’s a link to the lyrics of the second song (about half way down the page)… http://imomus.com/kkmp3.html