In performing annotations for both image and text there were a number of things that I found particularly engaging both within the text and the context of “The Lady of Shalott”. Firstly, I will say that I found the text itself to be incredibly engaging. This is the first poem that we have studied in this course and I found the medium to be one that I particularly enjoyed. The way in which Tennyson was able to weave together a narrative while retaining the flow of his poetry was impressive.

I enjoyed doing the annotations on content and craft last week, but I felt as though doing them for “The Lady of Shalott” proved to be very helpful. I often struggle to understand poetry, therefore it was helpful to have the opportunity to take a close look into the text. I also enjoyed listening to what my group members had to say, but also being able to see what other students wrote for the parts we were not assigned to. We were assigned the first image by WHH, therefore there were a lot of details that I did not notice.

Annotating "The Lady of Shalott" was an engaging process. Tennyson layers references and commentary on the social position of women and their lack of social mobility. The first impression of the poem is the base description of the Lady falling to her doom through her attraction to Lancelot. However, there are more intricate details within the poem that come to light through a focused critical analysis. The text is rife with allusions but what I enjoyed most was the symbols of the constrained life of the Lady of Shalott.

This week's class was once again focused on the text-image relationship but it was also very much focused on the weekly reading which gave great historical context on illustrators and how they went about illustrating their images. For example, as mentioned in class, the poem itself was published 25 years before its illustrations were released which not only shows how popular the poem was 2 decades after its releas, but also how the ilustrators grew up reading the poem since childhood.