The lady in Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" is cursed to
live in a secluded tower on an island in the river near Camelot. She doesn't know
exactly what the curse would be, but she can never leave the tower or look at anyone or
anything from Camelot. Rather than looking directly at people and places, she can see
them through a mirror that she keeps in her room, and she spends her days weaving a
tapestry of the sights she has seen.
One day, like an arrow
shot from a bow, the image of the knight Sir Lancelot appears in her mirror. The sun is
shining brightly, and it reflects off Lancelot's armor (greaves are the armor plates
that cover a knights legs) as if flames of fire. On his shield is the image of a knight
"red-cross knight," meaning a knight who has a red cross symbol on his tunic (think of
the tunics that Knights Templar wore). This knight is knealing to a lady. They "sparkled
on the yellow field" means that the shield is yellow.
The
lady is so moved by the image of Lancelot that she can't help abandoning her weaving and
going to the window to look down at Camelot to see more than just his reflection.
Immediately, the mirror cracks, and she realizes that the curse has begun: " 'The curse
is come upon me,' cried the Lady of Shalott."
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