Musings and Serendipities

Rough Draft: In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, the paradoxical nature of isolation and artistic denius is explored through the narratice of a maiden weaver who is forbidden from looking upon the bustling Camelot, and is forced to create woven images only by observing the world through a mystical mirror. Through extensive use of both mystical and natural symbolism, visual imagery, and extended metaphor, Tennyson creates a haunting yet whimsical portrayal of a woman whose deepest desire is to escape her imprisonment. With the maiden’s ultimate death, Tennyson imparts that although it’s admirable to experience and participate actively in life, isolation is what truly allows for the creation of art. From the beginning of the poem, the speaker floods our visual senses by painting a picturesque image of the city of Camelot, where “up and down the people go / Gazing where the lilies blow / Round an island there below / The Island of Shalott” (7-9). Immediately, the bustling...

Rough Draft: In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee”, the everlasting power of unattainable love is explored through the deterioration of a man lamenting over the death of his young lover, Annabel. With macabre imagery and illogical religious allusions, Poe creates a gothic narrative that depicts the more sinister aspect of traditional Romantic ideals of individualism. Ultimately, through the speaker’s grotesque dedication to Annabel transcending death, Poe imparts that imagination and romance can triumph over reality - albeit at disturbing costs. Immediately, the speaker establishes his deep feelings of adoration within the first stanza, where he describes Annabel as living “In a kingdom by the sea” (Poe 2). Although most Romantic ideals of the time saw forces of the ocean as representing freedom and optimistic liberation, the “kingdom” in which Annabel is trapped in has daunting and mysterious connotations. In this palace far removed from the influence of societal pressur...