Q 01/05

Which Victorian writer, later made a baron, wrote the Arthurian poem The Lady of Shalott?

A) Robert Browning

B) Alfred Tennyson

C) Matthew Arnold

D) Algernon Swinburne

Answer · why

B) Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson published it at 23, then rewrote it so heavily for his 1842 collection that the later text became the standard one.

Q 02/05

Which knight of the Round Table rides past the tower and draws the Lady of Shalott to her window?

A) Sir Gawain

B) Sir Galahad

C) Sir Percival

D) Sir Lancelot

Answer · why

D) Sir Lancelot

Sir Lancelot flashes into her mirror in full sunlight, and in the last stanza he is the one figure who pauses over her body to offer a prayer.

Q 03/05

Which crime writer titled a 1962 village mystery after a line from The Lady of Shalott?

A) Dorothy L. Sayers

B) Ngaio Marsh

C) Agatha Christie

D) Margery Allingham

Answer · why

C) Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie has a character quote the poem to describe a film star's frozen look moments before a party guest dies.

Q 04/05

What happens to the Lady of Shalott's mirror at the moment she looks out of her tower window?

A) It turns pitch black

B) It clouds over with mist

C) It cracks side to side

D) It shows her own grave

Answer · why

C) It cracks side to side

It cracks side to side, and she cries out that the curse has come upon her: the turning point of the poem, closing the third of its four parts.

Q 05/05

What does the cursed Lady of Shalott do night and day while watching the world in her mirror?

A) Weaves a magic web

B) Paints the passers-by

C) Spins flax into thread

D) Copies out holy books

Answer · why

A) Weaves a magic web

Weaves a magic web is the poem's own phrase: she works the mirror's sights into her cloth without ever learning what the curse on her is.