She hath no loyal knight and true

It has been a very busy day, and nearly every­thing has gone dif­fer­ently than I expected.   Rolling with it really worked out for me today.  A nearby fram­ing store was going out of busi­ness, and every­thing was 90% off.  I got frames for things that have been wait­ing for over a year to be mounted for super cheap, and a cou­ple of new works to break up the bare walls in my house.  The Feng Shui is all off, but it’s still bet­ter than it was.

The Lady of Shalott by John William Water­house now over­looks my liv­ing room.  Actu­ally, it’s only a nicely mat­ted print, but it warms my heart.  The paint­ing was inspired by Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem of the same name.  The Lady of Shalott was cursed and impris­oned in her home.  Not even allowed to look out the win­dow, she relied on a mir­ror for her con­nec­tion to the out­side world and her inspi­ra­tion for her tapes­try.  While she was weav­ing, the mere reflec­tion of Lancelot tempted her to look directly at the out­side world, bring­ing about her curse.  To read the whole poem, with com­men­tary and an even ear­lier 1832 ver­sion, go here.

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.