POEMS.

(PUBLISHED 1822.)

THE LADY OF SHALOTT.

PART I.

ON either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

And through the field the road runs by To many-towered Camelot;

And up and down the people go,

Gazing where the lilies blow

Round an island there below,

The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver

Through the wave that runs forever

By the island in the river

Flowing down to Camelot.

Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow-veiled,
Slide the heavy barges trailed
By slow horses; and unhailed,
The shallop flitteth silken-sailed,

Skimming down to Camelot :

But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?

Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,

Down to towered Camelot :

And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,

Listening, whispers ""T is the fairy
Lady of Shalott."

PART II.

THERE she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colors gay.
She has heard a whisper say,

A curse is on her if she stay

To look down to Camelot.

She knows not what the curse may be,

And so she weaveth steadily,

And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.

There she sees the highway near

Winding down to Camelot :

There the river eddy whirls,

And there the surly village-churls,

And the red cloaks of market-girls,
Pass onward from Shalott.

VOL. I.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,

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