Question

Which two sets of lines in this excerpt from "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson describe actions taken by the Lady of Shalott to defy the curse? 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; Outside the isle a shallow boat Beneath a willow lay afloat, Below the carven stern she wrote, The Lady of Shalott…. With a steady stony glance— Like some bold seer in a trance, Beholding all his own mischance, Mute, with a glassy countenance— She look'd down to Camelot. It was the closing of the day: She loos'd the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shalott. As when to sailors while they roam, By creeks and outfalls far from home, Rising and dropping with the foam, From dying swans wild warblings come, Blown shoreward; so to Camelot Still as the boathead wound along The willowy hills and fields among, They heard her chanting her deathsong, The Lady of Shalott.

Answer 1

The first set of lines that describe the actions taken by The Lady of Shalott to defy the curse are:

“With a steady stony glance—

Like some bold seer in a trance,

Beholding all his own mischance,

Mute, with a glassy countenance—

She look'd down to Camelot.”

Previously in the poem, it is mentioned that by looking directly at Camelot a curse would fall on her. So by by looking down with a stony, glassy countenance, she is defying it.

The second set of lines are:

"Still as the boathead wound along  

The willowy hills and fields among,  

They heard her chanting her deathsong,  

The Lady of Shalott."

In this passage she has left the tower where she was confined to avoid the curse and invites death by singing her last song, challenging the curse once again.