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Lady of Shalott

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How does Tennyson tell the story in Part 4 of ‘The Lady Of Shalott?’

Tennyson’s narrative verse ‘The Lady of Shalott’, tells the story of a lady who is trapped by a curse, causing her never to be able to look beyond the four grey walls in which she is confined, therefore separating her from the outside world. Part three of the poem describes the world from the Lady’s point of view whereas the final part four is the climax to the poem, which deals with the Lady as she appears to the outside world.
The ‘Lady of Shalott’ was set in the gothic period and comes from medieval romance. Tennyson’s lyric includes references to the Arthurian legend; Shalott and Camelot. In both versions, in part four the character dies due to their love for Sir Lancelot and floats down the river in a barge, to be wondered about by the people in Camelot. Tennyson draws ideas through the use of rhyme and draws attention to this use of rhyme by making most of the lines in part four end-stopped. This strong emphasis on rhymes helps to give not only part four but the whole poem the feeling of an ancient tale, since news was carried from town to town by word of mouth, rhyming aided memorization. The lines in this section of the poem are written in iambic tetrameter. This rhythm follows closely the up-and-down pattern of English speech, making the structure hardly noticeable. The rhyming scheme allows the narrative to knit tightly together and this suits narrative verse. The tight repetitive rhyme scheme in part four emphasizes the ghostly nature of the poem and creates an echoing sound that conveys a haunting atmosphere. This structure also emphasizes the monotony of the Lady of Shalott’s life.
Part four is the final part of this four-part poem. The start of each part suggests a shift in the story. Part four contains discrete, isometric stanzas and there are six stanzas in this part of the

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