Dreams of Lonely People

Mahmood reflects on a painting of great significance to him:

The Lady of Shalott was painted by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). It illustrates lines from part four of Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem "The Lady of Shalott."

The lonely Lady of Shalott in her seclusion was in agony, looking through her window at the hills and trees beyond, haunted by reflections in her mirror, walking in her bower, from end to end, aimlessly. Day after day this agony recurred, endlessly it seemed. She continued weaving the web, dreaming of her gallant knight, Lancelot of Camelot.

Longing could be fatal, and loneliness could be fatal too. To escape from this longing and loneliness pressing hard on her mind and chest, she ran to the boat at the bank of the river, with her web, and let the boat float in the river to Camelot, to meet her knight Sir Lancelot.

She was singing as the boat went with the current of the river. When she finished her song, she passed away.

I find my pains and sorrows in the Lady of Shalott as outlined in the Lord Tennyson poem and painting by Waterhouse. I spend most of my days at home, hardly meeting friends or acquaintances. I look through the window of the front room at the people coming and going, thinking: Are they happy? What occupies their thoughts? Without the family and reading, and sometimes writing, life is unbearable. No wonder the Lady of Shalott sung her last song and died.

In the early seventies of the last century, I was in London studying and training in Radiology. On one of my Saturdays wandering in the West End, I saw in an art gallery the painting of the Lady of Shalott. I was bewitched by its beauty as a painting and by its dramatic expression. I bought three prints of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and one of them was the Lady of Shalott. When I returned to Iraq, I pinned them to the wall of my study at my home in Baghdad. Only lately I read Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott." This reminded me of my home, my study, and the happy times in the company of my family and my friends. I was and still am a dreamer who has fallen in love with literature, art, music, and Nature....