Lady of Shallot's Lost Ending

From worn wharf into dreary keep

A line of knights and dames weep

Through rain and hail, silent in grief

Past the cold bones where the dead sleep

In the heart of Camelot

Where only little elves can see

The precession on bended knee

Grieve the Lady, at rest and free

The Lady of Shalott

Embalmed, entombed in the grey stone

Many mourn a face they’d not known

“Away” they said, “her soul had flown,

When she came to our wharf alone,

To rest with the dead of Camelot”

Lancelot himself offers prayer

To this cold unknown lady fair

A thing most unseen and most rare

Especially for this Lady of Schalott

When all rites and prayers had ended

When at last all had lamented

In full. A nun still attended,

To see natures laws suspended

’Twas Morrigan, Witch of Camelot

Here to see the sudden uproar

Surprised to see ’twas nothing more

Than a corpse that had washed on shore;

The Lady of Shalott

She observed the plain stone coffin

Lifting the lid she dropped in

A long glance at the corpse, scoffin(g)

At the still face almost taunting

“The great occurrence of Camelot”

As the common folk had named her

’Naught but a deceased stranger,

And comely looking granger

This Lady of Shalott’,

Thought the witch, with indignation

Seeing how this wench stilled the nation,

with naught but her expiration,

Struck with malign inspiration

The witch planned the fall of Camelot.

She found a rat, and slit its veins

Upon the ladies fair remains

And placed on her a curse of Cain

Thus was the resurrection of The Lady of Shalott.

Two days passed with little stir

And on the third did it occur

That out of the dreary graves cloister

In full health and beauty, ’twas her

The Lazarus of Camelot.

None could believe this heresy

What dark spell or curse let this be?

Out came brave King Arthur to see,

The Born Again Lady of Shalott

She was brought before the king’s court

Surrounded by the king’s escort

She was oddly in great disport

An almost carefree childlike sort

Brought before the Court of Camelot.

None knew what to do with this girl.

No answer came from any Earl

And the court was still in a whirl

Over this Christ of Shalott.

Was there a foul magic to blame?

Was her title even her name?

They needed to make this sane,

And out of the uproar, he came

The Chaplain of Camelot.

In his holy robes did he stand

Before the court, noble and grand

And beheld her face in his hand

The Whispered Witch of Shalott

A smile crept in on the Chaplain

And bolts of lightning had cracked in

The sky. The girl froze as laughing

Could be heard, lowly crackling

From the Chaplain of Camelot

Til a pallid green flame had came

And swallowed the priest in hot rain

Til not but madness remained

’Twas Morrigan the Master of the Lady of Shalott

All the brave knights drew their honed swords

The witch was too quick in her words

And in madness magic holds

The Lady’s eyes burned like dark coals

Igniting the fall of Camelot.

The fire burned away her skin

Now with scales likened to dragons kin

Formed, and she grew as great as sin

The Dragon of Shalott

Dragon fire had burned the king

Away with his throne, and bards sing

Of the doom Morrigan did bring

Upon the pyre of deaths sting

That brought about the death of Camelot.

And instead of a king all now

Hail the sorcerer queen and bow

Before her fell beast, and know

That she was once the Lady of Shalott.