ENGL 364 Dr. Helen Bittel "Lady of Shalott Study Guide Instructions: Complete any 4 of the following 8 question clusters. Please note that these questions were designed to accommodate a diverse group with different types and levels of prior experience, and not every student will feel well prepared to answer every cluster. Use your best judgment to choose the clusters that seem most likely to enhance your understanding of the poem and to best address your own interests. FYI, the "smaller" questions within each cluster are intended as prompts or suggestions and not as a definitive outline. You are not expected to answer each systematically (or to cover as much ground as the prompts themselves), but only to provide substantive and well-supported responses to the poems, responses that goes beyond "what" and into "why it matters" (i.e. go beyond identifying the rhyme scheme or recurrent imagery and speculate on their significance within the poem). Who? 1. What do we learn about the Lady of Shalott? What is her "story"? What happens to her in the poem? Why does she die? What? 2. Argument. May argue that while, on a literal level, this poem retells an Arthurian story, on another level, it is an allegory about art. In such a reading, what does the poem suggest about the relation of art to life? Of the artist to society? Of art and desire? How might we "read" her death? How? 3. Rhyme and Meter. How would you describe the rhyme scheme? The meter? How do they contribute to the "feel" of the poem? Do they seem appropriate to the subject or situation? How so (or how not)? Are there places where the author deviates from the established patterns? How might these deviations or disruptions be significant? What are the effects on the reader? 4. Sound and sense. Where does Tennyson use repetition? Alliteration? Enjambment? What are the effects on the reader in terms of sound? Mood? Emphasis? 5. Words and Images. How do the author's word choices establish tone, and what does this contribute to the development of the poem? Are there any words that are especially striking? Why might the author have chosen that word and not another? Are there any strong symbols or recurrent images? What do these contribute to the poem? 6. Motifs and Structure. Some readers claim that this poem is structured around pairs of opposites. How might you support this argument? And what might Tennyson gain in doing so? Put another way, how might he use oppositional imagery to reinforce the dramatic content of the poem? Why? Implications for readers today. 7. Is there anything in the poem that you think might speak especially powerfully to people in our own time and culture? What and why? Do you think that it speaks to today's readers for similar reasons and in similar ways, or in different ones? How so? Is there anything in the poem that---due to differences in cultural context---might be especially difficult for contemporary readers to appreciate or sympathize with? What and why? Potpourri 8. Is there any else that you think might be important in understanding how the poem works that we have not covered above? What and why? Contact the English Department at: 570-348-6219. E-mail: English@marywood.edu.

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Last update August 19, 2004
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