A Smile and a sigh

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

Juxtaposition of ‘smile and a sigh’, opposing emotional response indicates a passage of time/change in attitude with time, reflecting the range of emotions a person can experience throughout life.

Question 2

Stanza 1 key quotes

Answer 2

Entire stanza focuses on vitality and exuberant joy in life.

‘A smile because the nights are short!’ = seasonal symbolism = summertime which would suggest the peak of one’s life, youthfulness, perhaps the very beginning of a relationship (the honeymoon stage).

‘Love…makes & finds its treasure…treasure without measure’ - rhyme of treasure & measure = lyricism and the poetic beauty of this stage of life.

Question 3

Stanza 2 key quotes

Answer 3

‘A sigh because the nights are long!’ -syntactic parallelism of the 1st lines = subverts the vivacity of the 1st stanza with pessimism. Suggests a devolution or degeneration/deterioration of the relationship.

‘Long long these days…’ - assonance elongates & dramatises length to exaggerate the agonising existence of the speaker.

• ‘A burden saddens every song’ = song as a metaphor for emotion, musical, lyrical expression of joy. Perhaps a loss in terms of death or freedom (may be restrained by marriage) has quelled natural joy.

Question 3

AO5

Answer 3

tone released a melancholy desire for death