The mirror crack'd from side to side
"The curse has come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

She has heard a whisper say,/ A curse is on her if she stay/ To look down to Camelot.

She saw the snowy poles of moonless Mars, That marvellous round of milky light Below Orion, and those double stars Whereof the one more bright

Is circled by the other

So runs my dream, but what am I?
An infant crying in the night
An infant crying for the light
And with no language but a cry.

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.