"I'm half-sick of shadows," said the Lady of Shallot

The story of "The Lady of Shallot" is said to come from an ancient Italian story, and Tennyson made connections with the Arthurian legends through Sir Lancelot and Camelot.

The first few verses of the poem set the scene-

"On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

And through the field the road run by

To many-tower'd Camelot;

And up and down the people go,

Gazing where the lilies blow

Round an island there below,

The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,

Little breezes dusk and shiver

Through the wave that runs for ever

By the island in the river

Flowing down to Camelot.

Four grey walls, and four grey towers,

Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers

The Lady of Shalott. "

We learn that there is a mysterious lady imprisoned in a tower on a lonely island in the middle of the river that flows to King Arthur's castle, Camelot. Nobody has seen her, only the workers in the fields have heard her singing.

It turn out that she has some kind of curse upon her, the origins of which are very unclear nd even she does not know for sure -"She has heard a whisper say....". She is forbidden to look out of the window directly, and has to view the world via a mirror. She weaves a tapestry of the things she sees in the mirror to keep herself occupied.

While she doesn't seem to be too bothered by her fate - "And little other care hath she", she does feel depressed when she sees young people living their lives - "I'm half sick of shadows".

One day she sees the reflection of the gallant, handsome knight Sir Lancelot returning from a quest and she is caused to look out of the window toward Camelot. Then the curse begins...

The tapestry flies out of the window, the "mirror crack'd from side to side". She leaves the tower and finds a boat in which she lays herself down. The boat carries her down the river to Camelot, and she slowly dies while it takes her there. She dies singing her own death song. The boat finds its way to King Arthur's hall, where all wonder at what or who she is. Poignantly, considering he doesn't realise that he is the cause of her death:

"But Lancelot mused a little space

He said, "She has a lovely face;

God in his mercy lend her grace,

The Lady of Shalott."

There are several interpretations of this poem:

1. Women are expected to behave in certain ways and should suffer the consequences if they are disobedient.

2. The idealisation of women as untouchable "angels" or "saints" and their consequent isolation from society is used by men to oppress them and to keep them in their place.

3. All humans have emotional needs, but artists and scholars must make sacrifices if they want to make their achievements. What happens to such people if they suffer a moment of weakness? Are they destined to suffer a fall as a result?

Remember that Lord Tennyson was Poet Laureate, and a reluctant one. He had to write poems to please and praise the Queen and State rather than those which expressed his own inspirations.

I love this poem, especially with the visual representations by Waterhouse (which are, incidently, exhibited in Manchester City Art Gallery....) and the musical adaptation by Loreena McKennitt. I hope you enjoyed it too.

The "Woman Question" and the Bronte sisters

The literature of the Victorian era was influenced by four major areas of concern that arose as a result of the great social changes occurring during the period. These areas were: the effects of the Industrial revolution, which included a widening gap between the rich and the poor; the crisis of faith, and the Victorians' clinging on to their religious beliefs ever more firmly after the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species" in 1857; the "Woman Question", with opposing voices being raised against the ideal Victorian woman; and the expansion of the British Empire.

The Bronte sisters, who were born and brought up in a remote part of England, developed female characters in their novels that were against the norm. Jane Eyre experiences an internal rebellion against the limitations of women's lot in life. She decrees that women, like men, need to be able to use their intelligence productively and to be able to achieve things in life in order to be happy. She defiantly protests against Mr Rochester's showers of gifts before their wedding, feeling that she was being "bought" with silk and jewels.

While Jane Austen granted some freedom of choice to her characters, they are all eventually married in a manner conventionally acceptable at that time (think about Lizzie and Jane Bennet, and Elinor and Marianne Dashwood). Lydia Bennet's shameful elopement remains rather peripheral in comparison, and her actions are clearly not commended. The Bronte characters are entirely different. Jane Eyre marries a widower who is essentialy crippled after the fire caused by his late wife; the central love story in Emily's "Wuthering Heights" is between the Byronic hero Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, who dies half way through the novel. On Heathcliff's death toward the end of the novel, the two spirits are reunited and frequently reported to have been sighted roaming the lonely Yorkshire moors. Very different.

Heathcliff pining for Cathy.

People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them. (Fanny Dashwood)

"Sense and Sensibility". Elinor is "Sense" and Marianne "Sensibility". Austen is emphasising again how English women should behave in society, and she seems to regard Elinor as the proper model. Marianne's excessively emotional approach to life could potentially cause her ruin. In fact, it appears she narrowly escaped a possibly shameful end when it is revealed what Willoughby has been responsbile for! In the ned, Elinor recieves her prize for being rational and patient when she marries Edward Ferrars; Marianne learns that handsome men who read poetry may not lead to happiness, and she is better off married to someone more respectable and trustworthy!
There are a lot of scenes from this novel that will remind you of "Pride and Prejudice" (the scenery and the horses). Some of the charcaters may be similar (e.g. Wickham and Willoughby), or completely different (Mrs Bennet and Mrs Dashwaood). Both novels are written as seen through the eyes of the sisters with sense (Lizzy and Elinor).

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"

Thus opens the first chapter of Jane Austen's masterpiece "Pride and Prejudice". After some 1,300 years of English literature we are actually hearing a woman's voice. Not that there were no women writers before Austen, nor that she was recognised in her own time. However, she is now accepted as one of the three "giants" of English literature after Chaucer and Shakespeare, and that is an achievement.

Today, at a time when women have rights to education and employment and have more legal protection, it might seem that Austen's subject matter is trivial-love and marriage. But there are several things we must keep in mind about the period in which she was writing. Firstly, marriage was not a matter of love, but of logic and convenience. People married for financial reasons or for status. Girls had no right of inheritance, and were left on the streets if their fathers died, unless they married or had a kind relative to look after them.

While Jane Austen is not as fiercly "feminist" as her contemporary, Mary Shelley, and it appears that she accepts the fate of the women of her time, her character Lizzie Bennet, the heroine of "Pride and Prejudice" has an admirable independance. She does not want to marry for money, but for a deep love, and she refuses her cousin's proposal, although the marriage would solve all her family's problems. She also refuses Darcy's proposal in the middle of the novel, because she refused to be humiliated by him. He constantly reminded her of her lowness in station in comparison to his own nobility. However, throughout the remaining half of the novel, both Darcy and Lizzie come to know each other and themselves, and when Darcy proposes again at the end of the novel, Lizzie accepts because he sees her as equal and she realises how inherently good he is. In this way, Austen allows her heroine to have some choice in her marriage and preserves her dignity.

Blake's "London"

With the day section, we read Blake's "London":

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every blackening Church appals;
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most, thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

In this poem he is attacking the corruption that urbanisation brought to English society. People are unhappy, afraid; and often this fear is of their own making - the "mind forg'd manacles". He attacks the Church for its hypocrisy-while it claims to be the defender of the meek and helpless, it refuses to allow chimney sweeps to enter churches to worship. He also attacks the monarchy, saying it is the cause of war and the needless death of soldiers. The image he paints is Hell on Earth.

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

William Blake. Accepted into the "Romantic Canon" after his death, as he was viewed as being insane while he was alive.Like John Keats, he was a "Cockney" and recieved a minimal education, as was normal for the children of the lowest possible respectable class of English society. Perhaps it was his lack of formal education that allowed his creative tendencies to flourish.

A fierce supporter of individualism, he stated that "I must create my own system or be enslaved by another man's", and that's what he did-create a whole new method of writing poetry. His method was "dialectic", that is, he combined two opposing forces to synthesise a third, more powerful force. Hence the titles of his books of peotry "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" and "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell". Blake's world of poetry was a mystical, new universe.

We looked at two sets of complementary poems-"The Lamb" and "The Chimney Sweeper" from "Innocence" and "The Tyger" and "The Chimney Sweeper" from "Experience", and we saw how in order for innocence to be "good", some evil is necessary!

Water, water everywhere....

Coleridge's long narrative poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" appeared in the "Lyrical Ballads" he compiled collaboratively with Wordsworth. Putting the poem next to Swift's "A Modest Proposal", it is easy to see the radical differences between the Restoration and Romantic literary periods. Coleridge uses the "naive" narrative style of the mediaeval ballad, a central story of sin and redemption common to much folklore (remember "Everyman"), and supernatural elements like those found in many legends (remember "Beowulf"). He creates a hypnotic effect by using ballad prosody- short lines of alternate tetrameter and triameter, and emphatic repetitions of nouns, verbs and phrases, meaning that the reader as mesmerised as the Wedding Guest was.

Look at the effect of these verses:

"The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen :

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--

The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around :

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,

Like noises in a swound !"

And....

"And I had done an hellish thing,

And it would work 'em woe :

For all averred, I had killed the bird

That made the breeze to blow.

Ah wretch ! said they, the bird to slay,

That made the breeze to blow !
But when the fog cleared off, they justify the same, and thus make themselves accomplices in the crime.
Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,

The glorious Sun uprist :

Then all averred, I had killed the bird

That brought the fog and mist.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,

That bring the fog and mist."

Then the famous lines...

"Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion ;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean
And the Albatross begins to be avenged.
Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink ;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot : O Christ !

That ever this should be !

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout

The death-fires danced at night ;

The water, like a witch's oils,

Burnt green, and blue and white."

The poem, like a mediaeval ballad, finishes with an explicit moral:

"And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth.
Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell

To thee, thou Wedding-Guest !

He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small ;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all."

Just as Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has inspired many artists and musicians over the centuries, Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" has been a similar source of inspiration.

There is even a statue in a port town in Somerset thought to be have inspired Coleridge to write the poem:

"Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks

Had I from old and young !

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung."

As you've probably guessed, this is one of my favourite pieces of English Literature!!!

Romantic Orientalism-Coleridge's "Kubla Khan"

Another Romantic theme was Orientalism. With the expansion of trade with the East, tales of exotic places very different to England stimulated the imaginations of the Romantic poets. Here's the first verse of Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan". Notice the rich, exotic description (helped along with a little opium, no doubt).

“Kubla Khan. Or, A Vision in a Dream, a Fragment” (S.T. Coleridge)
(the first verse)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round :

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

For the full poem:
(http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html)

Shelley and "England in 1819"

Another common topic for the Romantic poets was the French Revolution. Percy Shelley wrote this sonnet in protest of King George after the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, 1819 (didn't I say Manchester had so much to answer for?!)

ENGLAND IN 1819

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,--
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring,--
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,--
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,--
An army which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,--
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless, a book sealed,--
A Senate--Time's worst statute unrepealed,--
Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst to illumine our tempestuous day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_in_1819

Wordsworth and Romantic Landscapes

Remember how the different Romantic poets had different preferences for topic? Well, the next few entries are to share some examples of these. Let's start with Wordsworth and his daffodils.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -

A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -and gazed -but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills

And dances with the daffodils.

Shakespeare's globe

We might have "finished" Shakespeare, but the beauty of the blog is that we can share information whenever we find it. Click the link to read an article about the possible discovery of Shakespeare's first theatre in London:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7931823.stm

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts...

Jonathan Swift-political journalist, academic, clergyman, misanthropist. Perhaps being involved with human beings from so many different aspects made him so cynical about his own kind. This cynicism reached a summit with his final essay "A Modest Proposal" (1729), after which he chose to write only poetry.
We must remember while reading this essay that Swift was NOT being serious in suggesting that the Irish sell their children for food to the rich. He was trying to attract the attention of an indifferent audience, before asserting angrily what he thought were realistic solutions (page 5 of your copies, beginning "Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients"). Swift's satire is very different from that of Dryden in "MacFlecknoe". He is angry rather than mocking; and he is calling out for an urgent solution to a problem of humanity rather than making fun of a rival poet.
However, similar to Dryden's "MacFlecknoe", the satire in "A Modest Proposal" is created by means of a contrast between form and content. While Dryden used the form of heroic poetry to diminish Thomas Shadwell, Swift uses the form of the essay - rational argumentation - to present content that is completely irrational and unacceptable to any human being, regardless of their race, culture or religion. Swift's language is clear and logical, the content is horrific and shocks the readers until the part where he introduces his rational solutions satirically by commenting "let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at least some glimpse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice". Again we see Swift's mistrust of the good intentions of mankind.

"Wage the immortal war with Wit"!!

Welcome back after the winter break!
This week we picked up our journey from the Restoration period and read the introductory part of John Dryden's "MacFlecknoe". Satire is a predominant feature of Restoration literature, and in this case Dryden used the mock-heroic poetic form to criticise a personal enemy, Thomas Shadwell. We no longer see the metaphorical flourishes of Shakespeare that appealed to our hearts; instead, we have elevated language that drives the subject of the satire into the ground. We laugh because it appeals to our intelligences.
What were your favourite expressions from the extract we read?