Previous Next

Each stanza in “The Lady of Shalott” follows an identical rhyme scheme: AAAABCCCB. This scheme is of Tennyson’s own invention, and it has a distinctly musical effect. As an example, consider the opening stanza, which establishes this unique rhyming pattern (lines 1–9):

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
       To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
       The island of Shalott.

One notable aspect of this rhyme scheme is the use of repeated rhymes. The first four lines all follow the same A rhyme, which creates the feeling of a lengthy suspension as we wait for a contrasting rhyme. This contrast comes in the fifth line, which inaugurates a B rhyme that also marks the end of the stanza’s first half. However, instead of continuing with the B rhymes, what follows is a different series of repeated rhymes—in this case, a trio of C rhymes. Though one line shorter than the quartet of A rhymes, this second series still creates a feeling of suspension that resolves with the return of the B rhyme in the ninth line. The counterpoint of tension and release embodying this rhyme structure creates a satisfying sense of completeness.

Despite being new at the time it was written in the nineteenth century, Tennyson’s rhyme scheme has a patterned formality that feels quite old. The rhyme scheme therefore gives the poem a timeless quality that helps link it to the world of legend associated with King Arthur and his court at Camelot. To clarify how this works, it is helpful to compare the rhyme structure of Tennyson’s stanzas to that of Edmund Spenser’s stanzas in The Faerie Queene. Spenser wrote his great allegorical poem in the late-sixteenth century, and even then he was keen to give his verse a patina of antiquity. He achieved this effect by designing a nine-line stanza form with a unique rhyme pattern: ABABBCBCC. Consider the famous opening stanza from Book I:

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many’a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

As with Tennyson, Spenser’s use of rhyme creates a musical structure that makes each stanza feel like a complete unit in and of itself. Furthermore, as the intentionally antique spelling of words like “ycladd” and “giusts” suggests, Spenser wanted to imbue his poem with the old-fashioned feeling associated with legend. The intricate rhyme scheme arguably amplifies this old-fashioned feeling through a highly ornate sonic pattern that vaguely echoes antique poetic forms. Tennyson has arguably followed suit in “The Lady of Shalott.”

Previous section Meter Next section Key Poetic Devices

Take a Study Break