Compare and contrast the two poems,

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Laura Combe

The Lady of Shalott

In this essay I will compare and contrast the two poems, “The lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and “Lady of Shalott” by Liz Lochhed. The two poems have very similar ideas and themes but are written in two very different styles. “The Lady of Shalott” is set in medieval times and is about a young woman trapped in a tower. She cannot leave the tower or even look out the window, as she believes that if she does a curse will come upon her. So she sits in her tower weaving and watching the people outside using a mirror. “Lady of Shalott”, the second poem is set in the 20th century and is about a teenage girl getting ready for a youth club dance. As she’s getting dressed she prays that she’ll find a boyfriend at the dance, but in the end she returns home disappointed.

        The first poem, “The Lady of Shalott” is written in ballad form and has a rhythm or beat that goes A-A-A-A-B-C-C-C-B. The first part of the poem is written in a very flowing style, “On either side the river lye Long fields of barley and of rye”

The way it is written makes all the verses flow together as they build up a picture of the town of Camelot. This part uses a lot of descriptive words and language, “Four gray walls, and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers.” This works very effectively and gives you a clear picture in your mind as to how the area looks. The writer also uses imagery when he says “Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott” this suggest that the Lady is not quite real and is a reference to a kind of fantasy theme, which runs through the poem. The second part of the poem is written in a similar way, the sentences are still flowing and there is a lot of description about how the town would look. It goes on to tell you about the lady weaving the people she sees into her pictures and about the Lady at the end becoming sick of just sitting watching people enjoying their lives and her not enjoying hers. “I’m half sick of shadows,” she says.

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        The third part of the poem is different from the first two. The sentences do not flow in the same way and we get short, fast descriptions of Lancelot which show how happy the Lady is to see him and builds up the excitement. A lot of the words used to describe Lancelot are words, which imply he is the Lady’s “knight in shining armour”, “dazzling”, “sparkled” and “flamed” are all examples. Lancelot is described as if he doesn’t have a care in the world, which is the total opposite of the Lady. In the last verse the pace ...

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