Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 132-135
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.
- Then, at the end of the day, the Lady undoes the chain that holds the boat to the shore, and lies down in the bottom of the boat. The river carries her away.
Lines 136-140
Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right--
The leaves upon her falling light--
Through the noises of the night
She floated down to Camelot:
- This is one of the famous images from the poem, which you might have seen in paintings. The lady is dressed in loose white clothes that flap about her in the wind. Leaves fall on her lightly as she lies in the boat and drifts, through the night, down toward Camelot.
Lines 141-144
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.
- The boat heads slowly downstream, winding its way through the hills and fields. As it passes, people can hear the Lady singing her final song.
- In the movie version of this poem this would be the big tear-jerking scene, definitely in slo-mo, with a sad song by Enya or someone like that.
- The focus in this last part of the poem is very much on the sad and lonely fate of the Lady.