"But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic
sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with
plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the
Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I
am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.
A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley
sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed
upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross
knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That
sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott. "
-Tennyson
"King Arthur, yet unwarred upon by fate,
Held high in hall at
Camelot, like one
Whose lordly life was as the mounting sun
That
climbs and pauses on the point of noon,
Sovereign: how royal rang
the tourney's tune
Through Tristram's thee days' triumph, spear to
spear,
When Iseult shone enthroned by Guenevere,
Rose against
rose, the highest adored on earth,
Imperial: yet with subtle notes
of mirth
Would she bemock her praises, and bemoan
Her glory by
that splendour overthrown
Which lightened from her sister's eyes
elate;"
-Algernon Charles Swinburne