The Highwayman is a poem by Alfred Noyes. It is about a landlord’s “black-eyed daughter” who dies with her “breast” “shattered” and drenched with her own red blood to save her lover who then is shot “down like a dog on the highway”.
A similarity between The Lady of Shalott and The Highwayman is that both main male characters in the poems ride a horse. “His war-horse trode” in The Lady of Shalott and similar, “horse hoofs” in The Highwayman proves this point. Another similarity between both poems is that both Ladies die at the end of both stories. “Singing in her song she died” in The Lady of Shalott verifies this point and similar,” died in the darkness “in The Highwayman verifies this point.
One of the differences between The Lady of Shalott and The Highway man is that the writer describes the morning in The Lady of Shalott. “Gazing where the lilies blow” in The Lady of Shalott substantiates this point. The writer describes the night in The Highwayman. “The moon was a ghostly galleon” in The Highwayman substantiates this point. The second difference between both poems is that the knight in The Lady of Shalott has a sword. “As he rode his armour rung” in The Lady of Shalott authenticates this point. The men in The Highwayman have guns. “His pistol butts a-twinkle” authenticates this point. The other difference between both poems is that Sir Lancelot is wearing a helmet in The Lady of Shalott. “She saw the helmet” in The Lady of Shalott provides evidence for this point. The men in The Highwayman are wearing French cocked-hats. “He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead”.
In The Lady of Shalott Sir Lancelot is described as a “bridle bells rang merrily however The Lady is described “silent. The Lady is imprisoned in a tower described as “four gray walls and four gray towers”.
At the beginning of The Lady of Shalott the setting is peaceful:” On either side the river lie, Long fields of barley and of rye.” However the atmosphere changes when Sir Lancelot is mentioned. The atmosphere becomes bright:” The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves.” At the end of The Lady of Shalott the atmosphere changes again. It becomes dead:” Dead-pale between the houses high”
At the beginning of The Highwayman the setting is dark:” Torrent of darkness among the gasty trees.” However the atmosphere changes when the Highwayman kidnap the landlord’s daughter. The atmosphere becomes sunny: “out o’ the tawny sunset”. At the end of The Highwayman the atmosphere changes again. It becomes dead: “Blank and bare in the moonlight.”
Both poems have different atmosphere at the beginning of the poems but then the atmosphere becomes the same at the end when the ladies die.
There are many examples of figurative language in The Lady of Shalott and The Highwayman. This metaphor: “Some bearded meteor” in The Lady of Shalott makes me think of the colour red and lots of shooting stars. This metaphor: “The moon was a ghostly galleon” in The Highwayman makes me think of some one floating deep in the sky, ghost and the bright moon. This simile:”Burn’d like one burning flame together” in The Lady of Shalott makes me think of the colour red and someone on fire. This simile: “Down like a dog on the highway” in The Highwayman makes me think of a dog, a hill and some one dying.
In conclusion, Lord Tennyson uses various techniques in his poem-The Lady of Shalott. The level of description in his poem exceeds the description in The Highwayman. In The Lady of Shalott, figurative language is used successfully among with other techniques to be a more effective poem then The Highwayman. One of the examples of successful imagery is the following metaphor:” The moon was a ghostly galleon” To conclude, The Lady of Shalott is a far more effective poem than The Highwayman in my opinion.
