comparison between John Keats and Alfred Tennyson

“The Lady of Shalott” is a romantic poem which twists with a mystical curse. The curse sets on the lady of Shalott as she looks out of the window down to Camelot and perceives the life around her. As she looks out of the window a knight in shining armour catches her awareness. Immediately at first sight she falls in love but the curse gets to her before he does, he finds it to late.

The second poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad” translates to “the beautiful lady without pity”. This mystifying poem tells the tale of dying man who falls into a catastrophic trap. A woman also in this trap lures men into her path taking advantage of them. The author John Keats uses many techniques in this romantic thriller.

The first stanza of the poem “The Lady of Shalott” starts with the description of the se

In the final stanza the author uses rhetorical questions as the Knight asks, “Who is this? And what is here?” The next line shows a sense of fear “died the sound of royal cheer; and they all crossed themselves for fear” The knight steps forward towards the boat “Lancelot mused a little space; he said, she has a lovely face god in his mercy lend her grace, The lady of Shalott.

In the third stanza Tennyson uses rhetorical questions this makes the reader think that the lady of Shalott maybe a myth “but who hath seen her wave her hand? Or at the casement seen her stand? Or is she known in all the land…”

“There the river eddy whirls, and there the surly village churls…” this phrase shows us that there was a circular current swirling in the river by the “eddy whirls” and that the lady of Shalott was depressed as “surly” shows this. “Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, An abbot on an ambling pad, sometimes a curly shepherd-lad, or long-haired page in crimson clad, goes by to towered Camelot” this quatrain describes the things that the lady of Shalott can see passing down to Camelot when she looks through the window. In the next phrase the author writes about the mirrors reflection on the window “sometimes through the mirror blue, the knights come riding two and two” this is also song like as “the knights come riding two and two”.

The eighth stanza starts with a sense of mystery as the “mirrors magic” this is also alliteration with the M. “ But in her web she still delights to weave the mirrors magic sights”. “A Funeral, with plumes and lights and music, went to Camelot” Caesura has been used to emphasis the pause after A funeral. This is to show its importance.

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