The Lady Speaks
Posted by Tel on June 25, 2009
me, the lady of shalott
is eye-locked in the mirror
because i know i’m hot to trot
but could it be any clearer
i’m looking at me while gazing at you?
how can you just pass me by
without lingering a while?
when you wander past this way
why is it you won’t stay
with me, the lady of shalott?
there is something much deeper
to locking myself away:
because i think i’m a keeper
and know you’ll feel the same
if you’d only see me, the lady of shalott
you’d see my my raven curls
and ponder the beauty they would unfurl
if you’d free your locks to entangle with mine
you’d find a night with me to be sublime
if you’d only see the lady of shalott
i see your reflection coming along the course
and make one last attempt to catch your eye
sometimes these things happen by force
and this will be final try
to allow you to gaze upon the lady of shalott
alas i pretend i’m weaving
while i watch you leaving
but really i am seething
with my hands writhing
while i look at me gazing upon you
my mirror’s cracked reflection devises a plan:
you are prince charming and will be my man
you will pull me from the soggy mire
as i drift down alongside your shire
you’ll see the lady of shalott floating down to camelot
so here i go: downstream i float
while the eddies fill my little boat
now i’m sinking and find this queer
no one fucking sees me drowning here
Moral
this lady of shallot
knew she was hot to trot
ergo with vanity forgot
so too was sir lancelot
benjaminchew110478 said
Hi Tel..
Nice poem you got there, but pardon me, is this an experimentation of a particular form or a collage of sorts with any previous work?
I am not very well acquainted with poetic forms, metrical verse and pre modern poetry (before Ezra Pound) so forgive my ignorance!
lady of shalott? Is this a reference to a character in a poem?
Tel said
I’m not sure what it is. I’m often challenged by meter/foot/etc. and like to experiment them, but I didn’t do so in this case. I made up my own rhyming scheme, however.
Yes, The Lady of Shalott is a character from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem by the same name. In his work of 22 stanzas, he deals with the themes of isolation and deciding to take part in a living world, so I sort of put a new spin on it from her perspective. Others have said it’s a piece that references the artistic dilemma: to pay homage to life by writing about it or by simply living it. Others say it’s about the role of women in Victorian England or the filter with which different classes see the world around them.
So, you get a sense about the historic poem. Mine is no where near that heady or deep, however. The Lady of Shalott, though, is one of my favorite poems.
Tel said
I have been working on this one a while and am open to any criticism and feedback. It’s definitely not where I want it…
bindo said
OK….Ive read this poem a few times and I always laugh….Why? Its the word Shallot…..My bro used to work with a guy who said it
“Shall-lot” Now I have never put emphasis on the second syllable, being of bad breading, so when I hear it, it just makes me laugh…When I see it, well, I just laugh even more…Great poem though.
Tel said
I’ve always pronounced it “Sha-lot,” with emphasis on the first syllable as well. For me, it’s definitely bad breeding mingled, or massacred as the case might be, with my Southern dialect.