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 Alfred Tennyson was born August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire, fourth of twelve children of George and Elizabeth (Fytche) Tennyson. The poet's grandfather had violated tradition by making his younger son, Charles, his heir, and arranging for the poet's father to enter the ministry. (See the Tennyson Family Tree.) The contrast of his own family's relatively straitened circumstances to the great wealth of his aunt Elizabeth Russell and uncle Charles Tennyson (who lived in castles!) made Tennyson feel particularly impoverished and led him to worry about money all his life.

 In 1816, Tennyson was sent to Louth Grammar School, which he disliked so intensely that in later life he refused even to walk past the school. From 1820, he was educated at home, mainly by his father, who introduced him to such works as The Arabian Nights, The Koran and other books of folklore and myth. He joined his brothers, Frederick and Charles, at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, and with his brother Charles, published Poems by Two Brothers in the same year.

 The Lady of Shalott borrows from the Arthurian legend and is a poem about a woman who is isolated in a tower with a curse hanging over her. She cannot venture outside into the world to be with others. What is worse, she cannot even look directly outside. She sits at her loom weaving daily and looks at shadows of the world cast in a mirror. She envies the freedom of others and grows sick of her limitations. When Sir Lancelot appears, she spies a gallant knight and dares to look outside. The curse is set in motion as she races toward Camelot in a boat. Yet, the Lady of Shalott cannot escape her doom.

 “live every day to the fullest, no regrets, make the best out of what you are given.“  The tone of the poem is pensive thoughtful. The Lady in her tower is only allowed to gaze upon the world through a mirror, and she is isolated.

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