Holly Kirby

Holly's "main" instrument, "Lady",  is a Luna Fantasie Lady of Shalott Acoustic/Electric Guitar.

In the words of the manufacturer:

"Few images have captured the mystique of Camelot more brilliantly than John Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott. The haunting woman depicted in Tennyson's epic poem about the legend sails a river of song in this exceptional spruce-topped acoustic/ electric cutaway guitar. Luna has created an instrument that delivers outstanding sound quality and a visual experience that will leave audiences and players, alike, enchanted. Equipped with Luna's Orion 4 band preamp system for maximum playing flexibility, this is one unforgettable lady...

..held against you as you play, the Lady of Shalott - reproduced on the back of the guitar, as well - emanates every bit of the magic that infused Tennyson's verses and fired Waterhouse's imagination. Float away with this ethereal spirit, into an enchanted world of musical expression. "

Guitar specifications:
FAN LOS DJC
Select Spruce Top
Mahogany Back & Sides
Grand Auditorium Cutaway
Neck: Mahogany/Rosewood
Mother-of-Pearl Inlaid Moon Phase Fret Markers
Preamp: Orion 4-Band EQ w/ Digital Tuner
Scale Length: 25 ½"
Nut Width: 1 5/8"
Finish: Matte/Satin




See the videos above and the manufacturer's page for more specs. See below for information on the legend of the Lady of Shalott, and a connection with Holly! You can also read more about Holly's love of her very special guitar on the Luna site - Holly is a featured Luna Artist!

You may also be interested in Holly's other musical instruments.

The Lady of Shallot - by Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Part IV
In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse -
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance -
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right -
The leaves upon her falling light -
Thro' the noises of the night
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song.
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darken'd wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame.
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they cross'd themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace.
The Lady of Shalott."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.

Famous poems of Tennyson include "The Kraken", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", and "Idylls of the King". He wrote the Lady of Shalott in 1833 and revised it in 1842.

Tennyson wrote a number of phrases that have become commonplaces of the English language, including: "Nature, red in tooth and claw", "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all", "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die" and "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure".

After William Wordsworth's death in 1850, Tennyson succeeded to the position of Poet Laureate, which he held until his own death in 1892, by far the longest tenure of any laureate before or since.

Queen Victoria was an ardent admirer of Tennyson's work, and in 1884 created him Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight.

During much of his life Lord Tennyson lived at Farringford House, near Freshwater. Tennyson's life at Freshwater features in Virginia Woolf's play of the same name.

One (very) minor connection between Holly and Tennyson: Holly's great-great grand uncle worked as a gardener at Farringford!

John William Waterhouse (6 April 1849 — 10 February 1917) was one of the final Pre-Raphaelite artists, being most productive in the latter decades of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th, long after the era of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Because of this, he has been referred to as "the modern Pre-Raphaelite", and incorporated techniques borrowed from the French Impressionists into his work.

Waterhouse was a popular and successful Victorian painter. The Lady of Shalott is one of his most famous works, and was displayed at Britain's Royal Academy in 1888.


Notes: Illustration alongside poem is by W. E. F. Britten (1901). Illustration of Tennyson is by George Frederic Watts (died 1904). Illustration of Farringford House is from "Pictures in Colour of the Isle of Wight" (Jarrold and Sons c 1910). Text includes material from Wikipedia pages, e.g. article on Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

© Holly Kirby 2012