I really enjoyed our discussion on the images in Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” this week. One thing my group talked about a lot that was particularly intriguing to me was how much the illustrations’ placement influences our reading of the text. I hadn’t looked at the images before reading the poem for the first time, and because of that, the first stanzas felt like an almost Rapunzel-like romanticization of the Lady of Shalott’s isolation. It wasn’t until the third section of the poem that I really got a taste of her madness.

I’ve always had a particular fascination with the art of William Holman Hunt and the careful delineation of detail that his work often encompasses, but his art piece for the Lady of Shalott that was viewed in class today was something else entirely. The namesake Lady in question is entangled in her own cords and looms and her face is intense with expression. To me, it comes across that this is not a woman who has accepted her fate, but rather opposes it. This is a brave and brazen portrayal of femininity.

I enjoyed annotating "The Lady of Shalott“ poem as it really added more information and considerations into a poem that has been read numerous times. It makes the experience more unique, so to speak. I hadn't really thought too deeply about the poem previously, save for the examination of its content generally. But to add it into the context of the Victorian period and understanding what influenced the illustrations - the pre-Raphelites, gender roles etc - it adds a whole new layer.

While creating annotations for Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” I struggled to find a word or phrase that was unusual or unfamiliar to me and worthy of annotation.  Because the text is extremely visual, the “content” annotation was much more difficult to procure than the “craft” annotation.  My “craft” annotation was “Tirra lirra;” at first, I thought this phrase would be perfect for a “content” annotation because it was an unfamiliar phrase.  I then decided it was more suited for a “craft” annotation because of its rhyme and rhy