Elaine had no more reason to live.Īlfred, Lord Tennyson retold the story in the poem The Lady of Shalott, of which he published two versions. Lancelot spurned such a strong love that was freely offered to him. So the story is plausible to me, since I witnessed my mother die about 10 days after my father with the same disease: heartache. Thus, they “felt” the world, with emotions that were more deeply and strongly experienced, with a range that exceeds the limited emotional responses of our time. Her love unrequited, she died of heartbreak ten days later.Īt that time, people participated in the world by experience unironically, not as they do today. After he recovered, he treated her like hired help, unaware of her feelings for him. When the knight was injured in battle, she nursed him back to health. In the Matter of Britain, the Lady of Shalott was Elaine of Astolat. The Lady of Shalott (1832) BY AL FR ED, LO RD T EN NY SO N Part I 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-towerd Camelot The yellow-leaved waterlily The green-sheathed daffodilly Tremble in the water chilly Round about Shalott. And thus, weary, I died, for loving well, as you can see!” ~ final letter of the Lady of Shalott

And if you want to know why I came to my end, that is because of the greatest knight in the world, and the most ungracious that is my lord Sir Lancelot of the Lake, whom I was unable to pray of his love such that he would have pity of me.

“To all the knights of the Round Table sends health this lady of Shalott, as to the best people of the world.

The lady of shalott 1832