I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott is a painting by John William Waterhouse completed in 1915. It is the third painting by Waterhouse that depicts a scene from the Tennyson poem, "The Lady of Shalott". The title of the painting is a quotation from the last two lines in the fourth and final verse of the second part of the Tennyson's poem: But in her web she still delights To weave the mirror’s magic sights, For often thro’ the silent nights A funeral, with plumes and lights And music, came from Camelot: Or when the moon was overhead Came two young lovers lately wed; 'I am half sick of shadows,' said The Lady of Shalott. This painting depicts yet an earlier point in the tale of the Lady of Shalott than that depicted by Waterhouse in his previous two works of 1888 and 1894. The Lady is still confined in her tower, weaving a tapestry, viewing the world outside only through reflections in the mirror in the background. In the painting, the mirror reveals a bridge over a river leading to the walls and towers of Camelot; also visible nearby are a man and a woman, perhaps the "two young lovers lately wed" referred to in Tennyson's poem. The scene is set shortly before an image of Lancelot appears in the mirror, enticing the Lady out of her tower to her death. The painting shows the Lady of Shalott resting from her weaving. The lady wears a red dress, in a room with Romanesque columns. The frame of the loom and the geometric tiles of the floor lead the viewer into the room, where the red, yellow and blue colours inside echo those the more vivid colours outside. The shuttles of the loom resemble boats, foreshadowing the Lady's later death.