These lines you have quoted come from the second stanza of
the second section of this excellent poem. Their value lies in the way that they stress
the importance of the mirror in the life of the Lady of Shalott, and show how the Lady
of Shalott was able to view the real world from her imbowered isle, even though the
curse prevents her from looking out of the window herself. The mirror then mediates
reality for her, so that she can see the world in "shadows," as these lines indicate.
The importance of the mirror is indicated in the way that it "hangs before her all the
year" and in the fact that the Lady of Shalott uses the mirror to view the outside world
which she then records in her weaving.
These lines above
all present a key theme of this poem, which is the way in which the Lady of Shalott is
isolated from real life, and just a spectator. She is left to record the "shadows" that
she sees in her weaving, which introduces the key conflict of art vs. life and reality,
and the limitations of art in trying to record or represent real life in all of its
vibrancy. In the end, the beauty, colour and energy of real life in the form of Sir
Lancelot cannot be expressed fully through the mediation of the river, which leads the
Lady of Shalott to desire life rather than its pale imitation.
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