Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 145-146
Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
- The song she sings is haunting, sometimes soft, and sometimes loud.
- The poem's speaker really focuses his attention on this moment, helping us to imagine and almost hear the Lady's last song.
Lines 147-149
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turned to towered Camelot.
- Then, as she sings and floats, the lady starts to change. Her blood slowly freezes and her eyes grow dark.
- The poem doesn't come out and say it, but these must be the effects of the curse we've heard so much about.
Lines 150-153
For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.
- Here's the sad part. Before she reaches the first house in Camelot, the Lady of Shalott dies.
- The poem is careful to point out that she died singing, that her death and the end of her song were part of the same event.