14 May 2022
On This Day
14 May 2022 Cheryl

14 May 1842: The Lady of Shalott is published

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse

The vivid medieval romanticism and enigmatic symbolism of The Lady of Shalott inspired many authors and artists, especially the Pre-Raphaelite painters. It was illustrated by such artists as John William Waterhouse (featured image), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Maw Egley, and William Holman Hunt. [1]

The Lady of Shalott was published on 14 May 1842 in a two-volume collection named Poems by the great Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is one of my very favourite poems.

A version of this poem had been published earlier but Tennyson edited it extensively for this publication, which included new poems and reworked older ones printed in separate volumes. The first volume consists of reworked poems taken from his 1832 book, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical which contained many experimental elements. The second volume contained new work. Tennyson has been severely stung by some hostile reviews of the 1832 book, which had found some of his poems silly, affected and obscure. He meant to reinstate himself in critical esteem, and to this end he very heavily revised the best of his earlier work, often following reviewers’ detailed criticisms. In many cases, this resulted in greatly improved versions, The Lady of Shalott being one example.

Poems includes some of Tennyson’s finest and best-loved poems, such as Mariana, The Lady of Shalott, The Palace of Art, The Lotos Eaters, Ulysses, Locksley Hall, The Two Voices, Sir Galahad, and Break, Break, Break. It helped to establish his reputation as one of the greatest poets of his time.

A first edition of 800 copies was published by Moxon on 14 May, of which 500 copies had been sold by September. An edition was published in the USA the same year by the firm of W. D. Ticknor, who sent Tennyson one of the first copyright payments made by any American publisher to a British writer.

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria‘s reign and is one of the most acclaimed poets in English Literature.

I have always adored Tennyson’s poem and also really love the many fine paintings that have been created to illustrate it. So I have recited it for you, and the recording is illustrated with works by John William Waterhouse, Lizzie Siddal, John Atkinson Grimshaw, and others. The video is also fully captioned if you need this feature.

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