The Lady of ShalottBy: Lord Alfred TennysonPage 808-812

Getting Ready to Read (in your journals)What do you remember from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte DArthur, and Romantic Writings?This is a poem about a woman who has been placed under a curse. Make a list of details of other stories, fables, and fairy tales you know in which people are under spells or curses. What happens in these tales when the spell is broken.Writing 2.3: Exploring significanceFlexible in thinking: tries to understand both sides of an issue

Surveying the Text How is the poem structured?

Background Information: This poem was written during Tennysons ten years of silence. There are many connections between the poem and his own life.Reading 2.1 Analyze features of texts.Uses past knowledge in new situations and connects two different ideas.

ReviewAlliteration the repetition of consonant sounds that are close to one another.Assonance the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in words that are close together.Opposition ideas that are opposite

First Reading

Disc 13, Selection 5

Rereading the Text Reread Part IWhat is the setting?What is the Rhyme scheme?What oppositions do you find in the first stanza?Reading Comprehension 2.2Listens with understanding and builds on others ideas.

Analyzing Stylistic Choices What are the connotations of the word gray? (line 15) What does the use of the word suggest about the Ladys existence?Literary Analysis 3.3. Analyze how irony, tone, mood, style, and "sound" of language achieve specific aesthetic purposes.Persevering: Stay on task to figure it out.

Rereading the Text Reread Part IIWhy does the Lady stay indoors and weave night and day? What is her magic web (line 38)?What role does the mirror play in the Ladys life?Why is the footnote about the mirror clear particularly important?How doe the descriptions of the other people differ from that of the Lady?What oppositions do you find in lines 55-70?Reading Comprehension 2.2Listens with understanding and builds on others ideas.

Analyzing Stylistic Choices How do lines 66-72 foreshadow Lancelots arrival and the Ladys actions in the second half of the poem? What yearnings do you think the Lady expresses when she exclaims, I am half sick of shadows (71)Critics have seen this poem as a commentary on the plight of the artist. In the light of this interpretation, what is meant by the Ladys complaint in lines 71-72?Literary Analysis 3.3. Analyze how irony, tone, mood, style, and "sound" of language achieve specific aesthetic purposes.Persevering: Stay on task to figure it out.

Rereading the Text Reread Part IIIFind examples of images used to describe Lancelot. How do they contrast with images of the Lady?What change do you notice in the rhyming words in the first stanza? Why do you think this change is significant?Reading Comprehension 2.2Listens with understanding and builds on others ideas.

Analyzing Stylistic Choices Where is the climax of the plot? How do you know this?Why do you think the author devotes so much space to his description of Sir Lancelot?How does the description relate to the Ladys action and to the overall meaning of the poem?Literary Analysis 3.3. Analyze how irony, tone, mood, style, and "sound" of language achieve specific aesthetic purposes.Persevering: Stay on task to figure it out.

Rereading the Text Reread Part IVWhat mischance (bad luck) is referred to in line 129?What is the significance of the repeated emphasis on the mirror, the tapestry, and this song (152-153)Reading Comprehension 2.2Listens with understanding and builds on others ideas.

Rereading the TextWhat does the mirror show the lady?Why does the lady leave the island?How are the reapers aware of the ladys presence on the island?What is the crisis in the poem?

Analyzing Stylistic ChoicesWhat is significant about the Lady dressing in white?How does the Ladys song (142-153) compare with that of Lancelots (107)?Literary Analysis 3.3. Analyze how irony, tone, mood, style, and "sound" of language achieve specific aesthetic purposes.Persevering: Stay on task to figure it out.

Overall Analysis What commentary do you think Tennyson is making on the role and life of an artist?Literary Analysis 3.3. Analyze how irony, tone, mood, style, and "sound" of language achieve specific aesthetic purposes.Persevering: Stay on task to figure it out.