Annotating “The Lady Shallot” and its associated illustrations this week presented a unique challenge for me in that I struggled to balance and condense all of the many facets of history and culture that surrounded the production of the poem.

   This week, our focus was Lord Alfred Tennyson's 'Lady of Shalott' which is includes aspects of Arthurian legend. I learned that the poem was in print for 25 years before the 1857 version was published with its illustrations by William Holman Hunt and Daniel Gabriel Rossetti. Our focus today was to make meaning between the originally published poem and its accompanying illustrations. Naturally, my mind gravitated towards understanding women in the cultural moment of the Victorian era; which delegated them to their homes to protect their chastity and sensibilities.

I really enjoyed the process of annotating “The Lady of Shalott” and the two illustrations by different Pre-Raphaelite artists. I was even more so intrigued with the poem in compaison to the other works we have looked at. It was so easy to read and felt like it the analyzing came extremely naturally and allowed for soem great food for thought. I annotated a piece in Part IV that was talking about the blood freezing within the Lady of Shalott and her mournful singing. That piece of the poem held some really vivid and dark imagery that was breathtaking to read.