Robert Southey uses simple, but gloomy language from the beginning of ‘Bishop Hatto’. He describes the ‘piteous sight’ of ‘grain lie rotting on the ground’. The gloomy language used by the poet continues throughout the poem as Robert Southey describes the actions of the Bishop and of the rats, as ‘they gnaw’d the flesh from every limb.’ The simple language used throughout ‘Bishop Hatto’ enables the reader to picture the actions that are clearly being described in the order that they took place.
Lord Alfred Tennyson uses a vast amount of descriptive language to describe the landscape of Camelot. With its ‘long fields of barley and rye that clothe the wold and meet the sky.’ However unlike ‘Bishop Hatto’ there is an obvious contrast between the language used to describe the landscape and people of Camelot and the language used to describe the life and feelings of the Lady of Shalott. Everything surrounding the ‘four gray walls, and four gray towers’ that the Lady of Shalott has imprisoned herself within is described using wonderfully pleasant language. For example ‘willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver.’ However, the poet uses images of death, to describe the tower that the Lady of Shalott is enclosed within. For example ‘the silent isle imbowers.’
The rhyme that the poet Robert Southey has created throughout the poem ‘Bishop Hatto’ produces black humour. This is because although the Bishop is an immoral man and the poem contains themes of murder and death, the rhyme and rhyming couplets still make it a cheery poem. They also bring the movement of the rats and the Bishop Hatto to life. Towards the end of the poem, the rhyming couplets increase the speed of the rats and grab the reader’s attention; as the rats pass ‘in at the windows, and in at the door, and through the walls helter-skelter they pour, from the right and left, from behind and before.’
Sir Alfred Tennyson, the poet of ‘The Lady of Shalott’ also uses rhyming couplets to bring the people and scenery within his poem to life. For example ‘up and down the people go, gazing where the lilies blow.’
A vast amount of metaphorical language is used by Sir Alfred Tennyson to describe the features of Sir Lancelot. ‘His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d, on burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode, from underneath his helmet flow’d, his coal black curls as on he rode.’ The rhyming couplets and metaphorical language used within ‘The Lady of Shalott’ make it easy for the reader to create an image of this wonderful and superior man. Sir Alfred Tennyson creates a sense of the Lady of Shalott being mad. This is because he writes that she believes ‘some bearded meteor, trailing light’ moves over Sir Lancelot and watches down on him.
Although both ‘Bishop Hatto’ by Robert Southey and ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Lord Alfred Tennyson end in death, the way in which it cumulates is very different.
The death of the Lady of Shalott is unexpected and sudden. As Sir Lancelot ‘rode down to Camelot from the bank and from the river he flash’d into the crystal mirror.’ The Lady of Shalott saw his refection and acted on impulse. ‘She left the web, she left the loom’, and ‘made three paces thro’ the room.’ ‘The mirror crack’d from side to side,’ and ‘the curse is come upon me,’ she cried. She leaves the gloomy ‘four gray walls and four gray towers’ in ‘the stormy east wind’, while ‘the pale yellow woods were waning’, and ‘the broad stream in his banks complaining’. She finds a boat and ‘down the river’s dim expanse’ she floats.’ She continues to float ‘down to Camelot’ through the night, past the ‘wilbury hills and fields among.’ However, that night the environment ‘heard her sing her last song.’ This is because she died suddenly due to over exposure to the elements. There is a sense in which she dies because of the curse that she believed would come upon her if she dared looked out of or left the gloomy castle that she had imprisoned herself within.
The death of the Bishop Hatto is very different to that of the Lady of Shalott. The Bishop’s death continues to build up for thirteen stanzas. However, at first it is not made obvious what is going to happen to him. The morning after he has performed the massacre of the beggars, he finds that ‘rats had eaten’ his picture ‘out of the frame’. This brings him out in a ‘sweat like death.’ He is then advised by ‘a man from his farm’ to ‘fly’, because ‘ten thousand rats are coming this way.’ The Bishop decides to flee to his ‘tower on the Rhine’ because ‘tis the safest place in Germany. The ‘walls are high and the shores are steep, and the stream is strong, and water deep.’ Nevertheless, this did not keep the determined ‘army of rats’ away. They swam ‘over the river so deep,’ and ‘climb’d the shores so steep.’ ‘In at the windows, and in at the door and through the walls helter-skelter they’ poured. ‘From the right and the left. From behind and before.’ ‘And all at once to the Bishop they went’, ‘for they were sent to do judgement on him.’ Robert Southey uses a vast amount of detail to describe how the rats chase the Bishop and then ‘gnaw’d the flesh from every limb’. The poet of ‘Bishop Hatto’ makes it obvious that he does not judge the Bishop for the crime that he has committed though the impartial language that he uses. He does not put his feelings across and just simply tells the tale, which is based on a real historical event that took plane in Germany.
Unlike the poem Bishop Hatto’, ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Sir Alfred Tennyson continues after the death of the disheartened lady. She is found ‘dead-pale’ and then ‘out upon the wharfs they come, knights, and burgher, lord and dame and round the prow they read her name the Lady of Shalott’. In front of her stood Sir Lancelot, the man that she had longed for to the extent that she had imprisoned herself within a tower. He ‘mused a little space’ and said ‘she has a lovely face.’ The ending of this poem is ironic because the Lady of Shalott has pined and longed to be with Sir Lancelot, yet when she finally meets him, she is dead.
The poems ‘Bishop Hatto’ by Robert Southey and ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Sir Alfred Tennyson both contain themes of death and a religious relevance. However, the different structures, poetic techniques and language used within the poems create two very different images. Robert Southey, the writer of ‘Bishop Hatto’ uses dark language from the beginning of the poem to set the ‘piteous’ scene and write of the Bishops criminal antics. This language creates an image of darkness. Nevertheless the rhyme and rhyming couplets within the poem create black humour. In contrast, Sir Alfred Tennyson, the writer of ‘The Lady of Shalott’ create an obvious contrast between the language that he uses to describe the people and scenery of the capital of King Arthur’s Kingdom and the language that he uses to describe the unhappy Lady of Shalott. All of the people and the scenery within Camelot are described using pleasant and charming language. However, the Lady of Shalott is described with sadness using miserable language.
