When I was in my high school, I came across this famous and magical poem for the first time. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot”. And ever since, it had become my favourite poem, indefinitely. Ever so gracefully, it remained on my mind, too gracefully though.
Still I do remember those
days, of my classroom where I used to sit on my desk, so attentive, in excited
and radiant smile, reciting the poem. If I’m not wrong, this is the first time
I fell in love with English literature and of course started liking my English
teacher.
This is one poem that I
held dear, and its lines, I knew by heart. Again and again I would read the
poem. To put it precisely, it’s crafted in perfect words and emulates
overpoweringly breathtaking images that one would never forget in life.
And the way Tennyson starts
out the poem is simply splendid. I can’t help myself from pulling out those starting
lines and putting down here,
On either side the river
lie
Long fields of barley and
of rye,
That clothe the wold and
meet the sky;
And thro' the field the
road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
The poet portrays the
scenes so magically. And it made my heart lurch, all the more. This is the only
poem that I read not for the exams, but out of the pleasure of words. In fact,
that’s the time I realized the power of words, what the black and white letters
can be.
Above all, it’s the
protagonist of the poem that had absolutely hypnotized me. The Lady of Shalott.
She is described as an absolute angel, “lovely face”, “fairy”, pure, and beauty
who “weaves by night and day/A
magic web with colours gay” in a four-towered castle. She is
like…ah as if I had met the love of my life, my soul mate. The more I read it,
the deeper I fell in love.
Moreover, I felt hugely
heartened when I had the opportunity to learn the poem once more when I joined
Sherubtse College in 2005. We read the nineteen century literature and we analyzed
this poem too. However, the analysis shocked me; left me shaken.
The poem suddenly turned dark. The Lady
of Shalott is restricted and imprisoned in the tower under a terrible curse. Subjugated and lonely,
she is considered as an invisible object, ghostly. Second half of the poem
becomes bloody and mournful. The Lady is doomed for going against the norm. She
cries. She dies.
I couldn’t believe that the
love of my heart, the Lady’s life is one long unspoken sadness and accursed. It’s
unthinkable; it penetrated me deeply. I couldn’t take it. It aroused such
sorrow and grief of the loss of the Lady that I almost burst into tears in the
classroom. I was angry at the poet, I started hating my lecturer, and I grew
disinterested in learning literature.
After almost a decade, today,
I read the poem once more. To tell you…it was a decade of my life filled with
difficult obstacles and decisions, unthinkable loss and fear, and countless
tears and anxiety. But it was also a decade of humbling realizations and
experiences – of love, of joy, of emotional growth, of mental maturity, of understanding
the true essence of life.
As I am already halfway to
this bumpy ride of life; and today, as I read the poem, I have come to
understand it. Its true essence, its beauty, its purpose and the love and grace
in the poem. This world, this human life is all temporary. Vulnerability figures
large all time, and that falling apart happens continually. Accept it or not, all
is not fair or perfect in this world, similarly this favourite poem of mine.
I am excited here that I
may understand the poem further as I grow older, in my old age. Learning never
ends, and this poem never stops giving me new lessons. “The Lady of Shalott” is
a poem for lifetime.
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