Both "The Lady of Shalott" and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A ballad" are pre 1914 poetry. The poets Alfred Tennyson and john Keats wrote many other fine written poems which include "the charge of the light parade", "Morte d"Arthur" written by Tennyson and "to autumn" and "such words" written by John Keats.
"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 setting "On either side the river lie long fields of barley and rye that clothe the wold and meet the sky" this description gives a visual image as meet the sky shows how long crop fields were and in the distance they appeared to meet the sky. "Clothe the wold" shows that there was a countryside surrounding which was near a road "Through the field the road runs by to the many towered Camelot" Here the importance of Camelot is shown as "many towered" shows it was a significant city. Metaphor has been used as the "road runs" this is to show that the road ran along the side of the field. Here the road is meaning the river.
The opening of the second stanza starts to the use of alliteration as the w "Willows whiten aspens quiver" This phrase also shows the deciduous trees swaying to the movement of the wind as the "aspens quiver".