The Legend Endures...Lady Shalott/If I Die Young

There is nothing better to help with "Blog Block" than to have a friend make a request for information. That happened yesterday when my friend Anna wanted to know more about Alfred Lord Tennyson's (1809-1892) The Lady of Shalott. This interest was stirred by the contemporary song by The Band Perry, If I Die Young. I am thrilled when modern culture makes reference to old art and artists, creating renewed interest and exposure. I have doubt that The Lady of Shallot was on the song writer's mind when If I Die Young was written, but it was definitely on the mind of the producer of the song's video. And if you are familiar with the Tennyson ballad written in 1883, you can't listen to The Band Perry song without picturing his Lady, dressed in white, floating in a boat to her death.
Scenes from the video of The Band Perry's song, If I Die Young. A book of Tennyson's poetry is clutched to the singer's chest and the last scene shows the book opened to The Lady of Shalott. The lighting in this video reminds me of the light in Waterhouse's painting below.

Tennyson loved Arthurian subject matter and his poem was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as told in a 13th century Italian novella, Donna di Scalotta. Tennyson's poem tells the story of a suffering young woman who lives in an isolated tower near King Arthur's castle. She is under the spell of an undisclosed curse allowing her to only see the outside world through it's reflection in a mirror. She spends her days singing songs and weaving a beautiful tapestry from the scenes she observes in the mirror...of life passing her by. But she says she is "half sick of shadows" and when the handsome Lancelot passes by her window with his black curls, it is more than she can bear to merely look at him in the mirror, so she goes to the window to have a real look. For all the trouble that Lancelot got women into, he must have been something to behold. The mirror cracks, the curse begins, and she sets herself adrift in a boat drifting downstream to Camelot and Lance, dying on the voyage as she sings her "last song". When her funeral barge arrives at Camelot, Lancelot sees her and acknowledges her beauty. Her dying wish has come true.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) Poet Laureate of England.

Some consider the Lady of Shalott to be a statement on the treatment of Victorian women but more truth may be in its allegory of the dilemma facing some artists, writers, and musicians- whether to create work about the world, therefore viewing the world in a filtered sense, or to enjoy the world by simply living in it. Tennyson himself explained the allegory of the poem as the "new-born love for something, for some one in the wide world from which she has been so long excluded, takes her out of the region of shadows into that of realities." Remember that Tennyson is also responsible for "tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."

There can not be a discussion of the Lady of Shalott without turning to one of the three paintings done by Waterhouse on the subject. His Lady of Shalott done in 1888 shows careful attention to the setting described in the the poem. She is "robed in snowy white" and has written her name on the prow of the boat so that Lancelot, at least, will know who she is. She has the boat's loosened chain in her hand, symbolically freeing herself from her imprisonment. She has the trance-like stare Tennyson called the "glassy countenance." She takes with her the tapestry representing her prior life as an observer; a life worth surrendering for love. The tapestry represents the life she has dreamed of enjoying, but there should be no regrets for her last action somehow makes up for lost time. There is a haunting reference to this same idea in The Band Perry song..."what I never did is done". Waterhouse takes the artistic liberty of adding the crucifix and three candles reinforcing the funereal tone of her adventure. The single leaf that has fallen in her lap tells the whole story-she has fallen and will soon be dead. She has renounced her life for the love of Lancelot. She is a martyr for love. The lighting in Waterhouse's painting is beautiful and symbolic. The muted earth and gray skies around her are in contrast to to the richness of color in the tapestry. The broken reeds in the foreground are also highlighted to symbolize her impending death.
The appeal for me in Waterhouse's painting is in the strength of his Lady Shalott. She took action with the ultimate price, but it is worth it all. "What she never did is done".

So the legend continues...from Elaine of Astolat, to the Lady of Shalott, to The Band Perry. Watch the video of the song and read Tennyson's poem. Keep finding the old in the new.


Another famous Pre-Raphaelite painting of the Lady of Shallot was done by Arthur Hughes who takes the liberty of demonstrating the theme of the punished Victorian woman by adding the female voyeurs (including a nun) passing judgment as they stand on the bank of the river. The Lady is a definite "victim" in this one. I do like the transparent red heart on the front of the boat.

Lightning Debate Sheds Some Light

Does lightning come from the lightning kitty? More true than I thought....
image by Ben Grelle


I received a phone call tonight from two people wishing to settle a debate on the source of lightning. One person said lightning came from the sky and the other said it came from the ground. Dinner at a nice Thai restaurant was at stake. My first response was "from the sky, of course". But I couldn't disregard the notion of ground origination since it came from what I knew to be an intelligent person. Well it turns out they are both right and I learned something new. This is how it goes: a path of negative electricity (that we cannot see) starts in the sky and travels toward the ground in a series of spurts. Since objects on the ground (like lightning kitty) are generally positively charged, and we all know that opposites attract, an upward positively charged stream, or channel, is sent out from the unfortunate object about to be struck. When the two paths meet, electricity begins flowing and a return stroke zips back up to the sky. Here comes the part I never knew (or forgot)...it is the return stroke from the ground that produces the visible flash that we see in the sky....so I guess you would say the actual flash of lightning we see does come from the ground, but the invisible force that starts the whole process is from the sky. So the real question here may be "is it called lightning before we can see it?" Sounds like each person may have to pay for their own Thai dinner.

O' Good Cat, We Will Meet Again

One in a series of art shrines I have been working on to honor pets that are no longer with us. This one has a place for you to attach a picture of your cat if you wish. The cat figurine is actually a vintage salt shaker. I added the blue bell to match his eyes, so this piece is titled "Bluebell".

Horny Toads: Back In My Life

When I was about five years old, I was obsessed with horny toads. I've always loved frogs and lizards, but this little guy held a special place in my heart. There were no horny toads in South Carolina where I lived, but I longed to have one, or at least see one. My first exposure to them was from the movie, Old Yeller. If you recall, Arliss had a pet horny toad that he toted around in his pocket. I was smitten. Old Yeller's original owner (played by Chuck Connors) realizes Arliss' family

Arliss and Old Yeller. A Horny Toad was sacrificed.

needs Old Yeller more than he does, so he trades the dog to Arliss for the horny toad and a home cooked meal. I love dogs, but this trade worried me. I would have never given up my horny toad so easy. The summer after this fascination began, we traveled to Florida on a family vacation and stopped along the way at a roadside serpentarium, called Snake World, or something similar. My older brother, in his kindness, gets the resident snake wrangler to bring out a horny toad for me to see. I got to rub the toad's belly, putting him in a reptile trance with his little arms stretched over his head. I never forgot that moment. That's the only horny toad encounter I ever had. But now opportunity has raised its horny head again as I made the discovery that amazingly there are horny toads on Sullivan's Island, SC. In fact the major colonies are at Station 18, only a block from our rental house there. How did this Texan get to Sullivans? It seems that the Texas soldiers being transferred to Fort Moultrie on the island in the early 1900's brought the

A picture of Fort Moultrie, the first home for the Texas imported horny toads.


lizards with them in their pockets as pets. They were let go or escaped and formed one of the only isolated populations for the horny toad outside of Texas. There has been a decline in the South Carolina population since Hurricane Hugo, but a large colony was recently spotted there, so they may be making a comeback. The horny toad's diet is 70% harvester ants. Their populations have declined everywhere with the overuse of insecticides killing their food along with the increase in fire ants that eat the docile harvester ants. They are now endangered and a protected species.

Demonstrating the rare talent of Autohaemorrhaging

This easy going reptile does indeed have true horns on his head. The other spikes on his back are actually modified scales. A talent this animal has is the rare ability to squirt blood from his eyes to distract predators, called Autohaemorrhaging. Many people don't realize this skill is more than a wive's tale. The horny toad lives in sandy areas, laying their eggs much like a sea turtle, with the new babies digging out of the sand after hatching. The newborns are about the size of your thumbnail and will scatter like water when disturbed. Native American cultures regarded this animal as sacred and they are often represented in their art. I believe I can fully agree with this assignment and hope to see one of the Sulllivan's toads soon.

First Memorial Day

Evidently a number of towns claim to be the first to celebrate the first Memorial Day, but according to David Blight, a Yale historian who has done extensive research of this event, the distinction goes to the African American community of Charleston, SC. The event was held May 1, 1865 as over 10,000 residents, mostly African Americans, gathered to honor the fallen African American Union soldiers. The families gathered for sermons, singing, and picnics at the Planters Racecourse (now Hampton Park), which had been the site of an open air Confederate prison where 267 Union troops died. The soldiers were originally buried in a mass grave but members of local African American churches re-buried them in individual graves that were later moved to national cemeteries. The South refused to honor the day officially until after World War I when the day was designated to honor fallen soldiers of all wars, not just the Civil War. I never heard this story until a few years ago. As we take time today to honor all fallen soldiers, I think it is important that we also remember the origins of this day.

A young, unidentified Union Soldier.

"Only The Devil And I Know The Whereabouts Of My Treasure And The One Of Us Who Lives The Longest Should Take It All"....Blackbeard

Damnation Seize My Soul by Chris Collingwood. I saw a great copy of this painting once, with perfect lighting, and it seized my soul.

Off the coast of Beauford, NC an anchor has been hauled up one last time... almost 300 years after its last drop. It is the anchor from Queen Anne's Revenge, the pirate ship of the famous Blackbeard. The once French slave ship was renamed and became Blackbeard's stollen ride after its capture. The ship met its demise before it's famous owner, having been run aground and abandoned a few months before Blackbeard's death in 1718.

The anchor of Queen Anne's Revenge being hoisted from NC waters last week. The wreck, which is the largest off North Carolina's coast, was discovered in 1996. Recovery has been ongoing since then.

The mad-eyed Edward Teach was born in Bristol in 1680 and grew up to be the most famous marauder of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. Pirates were admired as romantic heroes even during their own lifetime, glossing over the fact that most were brutal sadists. They lived outside the law and were free from constraints in those hard times when everyone else seemed to be catching a flogging. They accepted their fate--that their lifestyle led to an exciting, but usually short life with a career that ended in one or two years...usually at the end of a rope.

A pirate captain only kept his position if he were popular, successful and feared. He had to stand out in a crowd, and this Blackbeard did well. He was said to be tall, strong, hairy, wild, brave, and a flamboyant dresser. He wore brightly colored silk scarves over his shoulders with flintlocks tied to the end. He braided his beard, which grew almost up to his eyes, and tied the braids with colored ribbons. He put slow burning fuses in his hat which he would light right before going into action. He was a constant drinker who believed a drunken ship was a happy ship and said that without alcohol, the "rogues are aplotting." He was said to have tormented fellow pirate, Stede Bonnet, once inviting him on board, getting him stinking drunk, then convincing Bonnet's waiting crew to elect a new captain.

The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1718.

But it did indeed come to a quick end after he was mortally wounded by volunteers of the Royal Navy led by Robert Maynard at Ocracoke Inlet. It took 25 wounds to bring him down, including 5 gunshots and a slit throat. During those times, if you killed someone famous, there were no photos or press to prove it, so Blackbeard's head was cut off and hung from Maynard's ship's bowsprit as it sailed back to Virginia. But Blackbeard had the last hurrah as it was reported by those present that his headless body, when thrown overboard, swam around his killer's ship three times before sinking.

A canon recovered from the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge. Blackbeard had plenty of warning that he was losing his ship, so his booty was removed and taken ashore. Artifacts from the recovery will be on display at the NC Maritime Museum.

Look Homeward Angel: Part I

I am re-reading Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel and find that when people who have not read the book ask me what it is about, I never feel like my explanation is enough. Well maybe these words from TW can help explain...

Thomas Wolfe, From a letter to his sister, 1937:


"I agree with you when you say that bitterness is one of the things in life that kills....There is another thing in life that is hard to bear that fortunately you do not know much about---that is loneliness....I think I learned about being alone when I was a child about eight years old and I think that I have known about it ever since. People, I think, often mean well by children but are often cruel because of something insensitive or cruel in their own natures which they cannot help. It is not a good thing, however, for older people to tell a little child that he is selfish, unnatural and inferior to the other members of his family in qualities of generosity and nobility, because a child is small and helpless and has no defence, and although he is no worse than other children, and is in fact as full of affection, love and good-will as anyone could be, he may in time come to believe the things which are told him about himself, and that is when he begins to live alone and wants to be alone and if possible to get far, far away from the people who have told him how much better they are than he is....I can also say that the habit of loneliness, once formed, grows on a man from year to year, and he wanders across the face of the earth and has no home and is in exile, and he is never able to break out of the prison of his own loneliness again, no matter how much he wants to. So with all your troubles and misfortunes of the last few years you can be thankful being alone has not been one of them."




Wolfe's original title for LHA, even before the second title of O Lost, was The Building of A Wall. Now I understand why.

"Look homeward Angel now and melt with ruth:

And, O ye Dolphins, waft the hapless youth." (John Milton, Lycidas)