English literature- Anthology Flashcards
Remember by Christina Rossetti
- power of memory
- inevitability of death
- grief
- selflessness
repetition/imperative of “remember”
“silent land”- metaphor and euphemism
semantic field of vulnerability
enjambment after “forget me for a while…….and afterwards remember”
Petrarchan sonnet-
octave- concerned with being remembered
volta- turning point
Sestet- contemplating/sacrifice “forget me for a while”
Traditional rhyme scheme end DECDE, DECE
- break away from rhyme scheme, break away from expectations
juxtaposition/antithesis to represent sacrifice
forget and remember
smile and sad
iambic pentameter- one bit of control they have, control contrasts lack of control you have in death
Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare
- romantic view of love (sonnet)
attempts to define love, telling us what it is and what it isn’t
“which alters when alteration finds”
“alters” “alteration”
“bends” “remover to remove”
- Polyptoton, emphasis in constancy
metaphor “ever fixed mark”
lighthouse- gives guidance to ship at night, the same way love provides direction to someone in their life
- lighthouses are exposed to terrible weather, but despite this it is never shaken- reflects love through difficult situations arising, love is not shaken it remains strong
metaphor “star to every wondering bark”.
“star” love is a guide, it leads people, you can measure the height of stars, but you can never measure their worth, the value is immeasurable
“tempests and is never shaken”
- conceit, love survives difficult times
“brief hours and weeks” to “the edge of doom”
- contrast, briefness of life to longevity of love
semantic field “hours” “weeks” “compass”
- journey/cycle of love
- temporality, infinite, no normal sense of time
three quatrains and rhyming couplet- constancy of true love. iambic pentameter - reinforces the steadfast nature of true love that the sonnet describes
1st quatrain- constancy of love
2nd quatrain- love provides guidance/great value
3rd quatrain- longevity of love/outlives our lives and lasts forever
volta - last 2 lines, so certain about love being this way
“love not times fool”
- personification, love is not at times mercy
theme: love as a form of guidance, constancy of love
Search for my tongue by Sujata Bhatt
Themes: identity, language, immigration, cultural heritage
learning your mother tongue - native language is a synecdoche for her identity
“you” “i ask you”
- direct address engages reader
“lost my tongue”
- idiom extended metaphor
“two tongues in one mouth”
- stresses the difficulty and discomfort of speaking 2 languages
juxtaposition/antithesis of “mother” and “foreign”.
“mother”- links with identity
“foreign”- contrast, makes it seems alien, cant identify with
“rot” “rot” “die”
repetition/semantic field and imagery of death, represents fear she is going to loose her language
“spit it out” “spit it out”
- repetition, harsh consonance, mirror fight/struggle her two languages have. reader is able to realise how difficult to hold onto your first language
mother tongue is innate within you, the speaking has not lost her sense or cultural/linguistic identity despite immigrating to foreign land and having to adopt a new language
semantic field/ floral imagery of life= contrast to death in the first stanza. “stump” “shoot” “bud” “bud” “
-veins” “blossoms”
extent at which “mother tongue” dominates the “foreign tongue” is illustrated through the image of it tying “the other tongue in knots” and “it pushes the other tongue aside”
Structure and form
- tone is of reassurance, her previous doubts have been assuaged (alleviated/soothed)
- 3 stanzas middle stanza is Gujarati visualises mother language flooding back
- volta indicates triumphant tone (last line)
lack of rhyme (more conversational)
War Photographer by Carol an Duffy
- Sinister tone created through diction and sibilance “dark” “light is red” “s in spools” “s in suffering” “s in set “
“ordered rows” images of war graves juxtaposes order of photos with chaos of war
Duffy alerts readers to a moment of relief for the photographer when he is alone in his dark room
This implies the photographer’s distress in the external world
“church” “priest” “intone” “mass” - religious reference, work (photography) is sacred, highlights how important war photographer believes him job is
“Belfast” “Beirut” “Phnom” “Penh”
- plosives represent harshness of war/but also mimic sound of gun shots- as he develops photos he is reliving sounds he experienced
“all flesh is grass” Bible reference, life is transitory/reminder we all die
2nd stanza:
“he has a job to do”
- short sentence- emotionless
caesura between rural England
- represents separation he feels, back in England. Maybe also be how he views England? They are so separated from this other world, where life is very different— “ordinary pain” “simple weather” also high this to, represent simplicity of life
straight after this “explode” “running children” (also emotive language) “nightmare heat”
- juxtaposition of two worlds/simplicity of rural England
- phrase “ordinary pain” contrasts the violent action of “children running” to show the problems in England as trivial compared to those in areas of conflict
3rd stanza:
“strangers” “foreign” otherness, to highlight how separate the war photographer feels at times, feels world apart
“half form ghost” “blood stained”
- imagery of death
4th stanza
“hundred” “five or six”
- contrast, emotionless of process
“the readers eyeballs prick between the bath and pre lunch bears”
- now over it
- mid line rhyme scheme= speed of forgetting
“impassively” “they do not care”
- defeated tone, efforts are futile
form and structure:
- cyclical structure emphasises how futile his efforts are
- 4 stanzas of 6 lines, rhyme scheme of abbcdd (represents the controlled attempt to impose on the chaos of war)
Tyger by William Blake
1st stanza:
“Tyger Tyger”
- directly addresses tiger
“forests of the night”
- imagery, mysterious environment, reflects mystery around God for Blake
“fearful symmetry?”
- juxtaposes danger and beauty
- questioning - intrigued
- “symmetry” shows a skilled and intricate creator
2nd stanza
“in what distant deep or skies”
“deep” and “skies” allusion to heaven and hell- which kind of god, a good god or an evil god
“burnt the fire” “seize the fire”
- images of fire
- images of tiger being created out of fire = mirrors the flame like image of the tiger and creates an image of a daring God who “plays with the fire”
- either God created the tiger or tiger as a metaphor for mankind. God took a great risk in creating a ferocious creature
“on what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?”
- reference to Greek mythology (Daedalus and Icarus - to escape their captors created wings and flew away, known for breaking the rules, suggesting a rebellious God?) ( “what the hand dare seize the fire” - referencing Prometheus who stole fire from Gods to give to humanity)
makes the reader think what time of hero/god created the tiger
3rd stanza
- continuation of questions, he is intrigued
- God that’s moulding the tiger “twist”
- repetition of “dread”, fear what he created. Could link to Frankenstein- fearing your own creation.
“And when thy heart began to beat”
The third line refers to the tiger’s heart beating for the first time:
The line is written in iambic tetrameter, which could mimic the rhythm of the tiger’s heart but, more importantly, reflects the speaker’s growing curiosity
4th stanza
“hammer” “chain” “furnace” “anvil” metaphor : God behaving like a blacksmith- Hephaestus (greek God that made weapons of war, God creating tiger or God created mankind to create something that is capable of great evil
“dare” “deadly” “dread” “d” - adds to this horror
The rhythm of this stanza could also reflect the banging of the hammer
5th stanza:
Tiger as a metaphor for human kind. “stars” metaphor for angels, did the angels protest and where they fearful for what human kind could create (free will)- did they throw down their “spears” and have “tears” (personification)
“did he who made the lamb make he”
- what type of God capable of making a meek animal such as the lamb choose to create an animal as ferocious as the tiger - this explores the duality of the Christian God, he is punitive and forgiving
“lamb” could be a metaphor for Jesus. Jesus referred to the lamb of God
6th stanza
- repetition of 1st stanza frames the poem, highlights questions will never be answered
- maybe celebrating complexity of God, in awe of this other world that he cant grasp
juxtaposition in first stanza from “could” and last to “dare”
- which God would are do it, God that takes risks
structure and form:
- 6 quatrains in rhyming couplets
- Trochaic Tetrameter (stressed/unstressed) (nursery rhyme? blacksmith hammering away)
- series or rhetorical questions- unanswered questions, complexity of nature
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Themes: power, gender roles, jealousy and insecurity, memory
Dramatic monologue- self important/narcassistic Silent interlocutor
Wider criticism of treatment of women
The Duchess’s side of the story is not told, which implies the lack of feminine narrative in Victorian society
1st stanza
“that” “that piece “ - repetition, pronoun objectifies her
“last Duchess”
- sequential like a collectible, now she is a painting on his wall, she is an object to him
“now”
- diction= indicates Duke regarded her as less when living
“Fra Pandolf” is repeated
- monk/religious figure
“Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
- rhetorical question is more of a command, reinforcing Dukes controllling nature
“since nothing puts by the curtain i have drawn for you, but i”
- parenthesis/metaphor for his control and power
“durst” (dared)- diction Duke is feared showing negativity towards his character
“spot of joy” “spot of joy” repeated- refers to her blushing as a “spot”, presents it more like a blemish/imperfection rather than something endearing an beautiful
“courtesy” “easily impressed” “looked on” “to soon make glad”
- list about everything that annoyed him about his wife
- ironically this list is full of great qualities
- exposes the Duke to be irrational and jealous
Browning uses the metaphor of the Duchess having a heart “too soon made glad”
innocent and delighted by all of nature’s things and embarrassed by compliments, easily pleased and pleasant to everyone
The Duke misinterprets this as unfaithfulness
“her looks went everywhere”
- euphemism now has her under a curtain so he now controls her looks
“dropping of the daylight in the West”
- imagery of the sunset can be seen as pathetic fallacy and foreshadowing her life coming to an end, like the end of the day
The Duke believes he paid for the Duchess with the gift of his “nine-hundred-year-old name” and that she should be grateful
- metaphor and euphemism
- lower social status
“which I have not”
- irony= iambic pentameter and dramatic monologue proves opposite
“Just this or that is your disgusts me; here your miss”
- dialogue reveals the Duke = antithesis of Duchess
“lessoned”- indicates her sees her as a child
repetition of “stoop”. Pompous/ pretentious
“This grew I gave commands Then all smiles stopped together”
- curt clauses= sinister tone and ambiguity
“there she stands as if i alive” juxtaposition of foul play
“will’t please you rise”
- juxtaposition= sinister
“dowry will be disallowed” (count has to give him money for his daughter, money will be met)
- goes onto say the most important object - “is my object”. Word choice= possessiveness
walks past and sees another object- “taming a see horse” draws parallels to own behaviour, sees his wife as a collectable like them
juxtaposition highlights the objectification of the Duchess
structure and form:
- personal pronoun all the way through “my” “i” “me”
- iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets- tight control
- enjambment- conversational tone
- Single verse/no stanzas- Duke’s dominance overwhelming. Poet gives a sense of the poem being the Duke’s stream of consciousness - his unfiltered thoughts and feelings
Browning also employs caesura to show that the Duke keeps interrupting himself- This does not concern the Duke, however, which can be seen as a sign of too much pride and self-obsession
Browning uses symbolism in the form of the Duchess as a painting, the viewing of which no one but the Duke can control
This suggests he is threatened by other men enjoying looking upon her beauty
It highlights the absolute control he had over her, not just in life, but also in death
Half- Caste by John Agard
Themes: identity, discrimination, confrontational
“Half-caste”
- implies incompleteness
- derogatory term for mixed race
- reducing him to half a human?
“caste” implies racial hierarchy
“excuse me”
- direct address engages reader/directly challenges bigots.
- sets up the satirical tone of the poem
“standing on one leg”
- sarcastic tone and humour highlights how ridiculous the tone is
“im half caste”- declarative, personal, reader likely to listen as he is speaking from experience
“explain yuself”“yuself”
- refrain
- colloquial language
- repetition- argumentative/confrontational, issue lies with Biggot who created term, not with him, challenges reader to rethink term
“picaso mix red an green is a half-caste canvas”
- analogy= emphasises beauty of mixing colours
- humorous metaphor
- challenging racism by making a high cultural reference
half cast weather “mix in de sky” “england weather” humorous metaphor
“dem dont want de sun pass”
- metaphor for bigots who block out their humanity
- Extending the metaphor of cloudy weather illustrates the speaker’s anger at the way racism “clouds” people’s judgement:
emphasised by the echoing word “overcast”, which suggests that the “sun” of truth is hidden behind the “clouds”
- sibilance “so spiteful” creates a sinister tone
“ah rass” - expletive to reinforce his anger
“tchaikovsky”“mix a black key wid a white key”
- proud of mixed heritage and sees it as a beautiful thing
- black and white key have to work together
- analogy highlights the beauty of mixing
- power of music, dont care with colour pallets or notes so why should we care with skin colour
goes from high art- back to day to day- back to high art
“picasso” and “tchaikovsky” both lowercase as we all equal
“half of a hand” “half of mih ear” “half an eye”
- repetition/imagery how he is viewed as incomplete
- anatomical imagery - reducing himself
aural imagery
“half a shadow” - sinister tone- viewed fearfully
“whole” “whole” “whole” - challenges reader to open their minds
- insinuates it is the bigot who is less than whole
structure and form:
3 unequal stanzas and 2nd long stanza and enjambment, no punctuation gives a rant-like quality
no end stopped line- not the full story
phonetic spelling- unapologetic about his Guyanese Creole dialect- great grasp on identity that he has no intention of diluting
lines are incomplete- reflects how he is viewed
Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas
Do not resign yourself without a fight
“do not” repeated throughout poem. imperative, commanding tone to resist death
“good night” - metaphor or euphemism for death- difficulty in accepting impending death/describe death as transitioning from day to night
- end stopped lines add conviction and confidence to speakers statements
“burn and rave”- assonance and plosive= emotive bold imagery- fight against death
repetition of “rage” “rage” - refrain and repetition of violent imagery
“wise men” “good men” “wild men” “grave men” “and you”
- universality of death, no matter the lives they lived/inevitable
- encourages him to fight
“last wave”- ambiguous, last wave of their life
“might have” regretful tone
“deeds might have danced in the good bay” - personification, good/positive things you could have done early. “green” connotes fertility
“wild men” “caught and sang the sun in flight”- metaphor to live without boundaries
“learn” “late” consonance
“blinding sight” oxymoron= decaying physically but gaining insight, seeing world differently
“curse, bless” oxymoron
“sad height” metaphor, height of his sadness? edge of his life?
Structure and form
- villanelle (6 stanzas, 5 tercets and a quatrain)
- line 1 and 3 repeat in alterations
- final rhyming couplet
- iambic pentameter
controlled structure= desire to control his fathers actions
Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker
Themes: religion, poverty, luck
“blessing” religious connotations
1stanza: immediate contrast with title
“skin cracks like a pod” simile
“cracks”- harsh consonants reflect harshness of scorching sun
2 stanza
“drip” “echo” “splash” onomatopoeia engages senses. monosyllables emphasise severe dehydration
“imagine” - encourage reader to emphasise in those in such poverty
“voice of a kindly god” metaphor accentuates scarcity
- appeals to senses a lot
3rd stanza
“sometimes” adverb emphasises “blessing” is a special occasion
“fortune” “silver crashes” - metaphor accentuates value and encourages privileged reader to reflect
- juxtaposition wealthy vs impoverished
“flow” “found” mirrors flow of water
“roar of tongues” “man women child” “frantic” - suggests hysteria, no punctuation = chaos
“congregation:” religious connotations= sanctify, gift from God
: caesura emphasises sense of community
4th stanza
“naked” “small bones” water emphasises bone structure- “highlights polished to perfection”
- importance of children being mentioned: they are the future of community, little hope for them
implies poverty, highlights innocence and vulnerability.
- ends in this way: reminder still desperate and poor, short term fix
“liquid sun” - symbolism of light
“screaming” - ambiguous, reminder of pain and suffering that children go through, this is a break from their reality
“flashing light” “blessing”
- presence of God, blessing them with water
structure and form:
- first 2 stanzas set a scene of suffering which makes stanzas 3 and 4 seem more significant
- longer stanza and enjambment = excitement or mimics flowing of water
Half- Past two by U A Fanthorpe
Themes: childhood, memory, punishment, time, criticism of education system
“once upon a schooltime”
- “once upon” - evokes fairy tales
- juxtaposes fantasy with the harshness of school
- “schooltime” compound words= lack of understanding
simple language sentence structure- how a boy would think/speak
“Something Very Wrong”
- criticise education system or teacher, boy doesn’t know what he has done wrong
- brackets - parenthesis, afterthought. mimics him being forgotten. hadn’t actually taught him- evokes sympathy for child
“gettinguptime” “timeyouwereofftime” “timetogohomenowtime”
- sense of security so introducing “half past two” is intimidating to this boy who is only used to these type of terms (contrast)
- represents simplistic world view a child has
“two long legs for walking” “little eyes” personification emphasises innocence
“click” onomatopoeia
“escaped for ever” liberative tone/ triumphant tone= escaped the confinements of a teachers punishment
“escaped” solace from adult perspective- nostalgic tone of freedom of looking back when you were not aware of time
“into the” “into the” “into the” anaphora- timeless void
“silent noise” paradox
“air outside the window” “window” symbol of freedom. images of freedom
“scuttling in, I forgot all about you”- free indirect discourse
“run along or you’ll be late” teacher brings child back to conventional time, come back o reality confined by time in the real world. dismissive tone
“so she slotted” - sibilance creates sinister effect
“clockless land” “ time hides tick-less” (personification) metaphor for the freedom of childhood
structure and form:
- eleven tercets, irregular line length. Enjambment
free verse- inability to measure, memories are non-numeric
If by Rudyard Kipling
Themes: stoicism, parent and child relationships, advice and guidance, virtuous living, balance
1st stanza
“if you can” second person- father to son/persona to reader (universality of message)
- listing/anaphora=life is full of consequencees
“keep your head head” synecdoche (composure)
“dont deal in lies” “dont give way to hating” “dont look to good”
- imperatives= emphatic
- didactic tone
2nd stanza (advisory tone- facing disaster with great resilience)
- dashes give emphasis, balance you should dream but not too much
“Triumph and Disaster” - personification
“two imposters just the same” - both are short-lived, dont know when these things will come and they both dont last that long
“twisted by knaves” metaphor, someone might present you as something else, a warning of bad things that may happen
“you gave your life to” - hyperbole
“build em up with worn out tools”
- metaphor reminds reader of human potential, all about resilience going through life challenges
3rd stanza (taking risks in life)
“one heap of all your winnings” metaphor, gambling imagery, talking about successes in life “pitch and toss”
“and” “and” “and” repetition syndetic listing, being persistence, no matter disaster come back with all efforts
“never breathe a word about your loss”
- stoicism , in hard times not complaining, moving on
“heart” “nerve” “sinew” syndetic listing- persistency
“will which says to them: hold on”
- personification, importance of strength will power
4th stanza
contrasting ideas - “crowds” “kings” “foes” “friends” “If all men count with you, but none too much”
- you need to speak with all kinds of people and remain integrity and sense of self
“or walk with kinds- nor lose the common touch” - parallel sentence structure
“yours is the earth” hyperbole, emphasises great opportunity
dashes give emphasis, more important to be a “man” (stereotypical ideas)
exclamation marks- gives encouragement
- imperious tone
structure and tone: advisory/didactic/optimistic/emphatic (passionate and encouraging)
- dramatic monologue= lecture-like
iambic pentameter= well balanced/controlled
rhyme scheme - conversational
Prayer before birth by Louis MacNeice
Themes: horrors of war, humanity, fascism, fear, manipulation
“prayer before birth” sense of fear and desperation, from perspective of an unborn child
“i am not yet born” - anaphora
“hear me” imperatives, commanding God to help them= desperation
child like images fearful- “blood sucking bat” “rat” “stoat” - innocence
internal rhyme
“drugs” “drope” “lies” “lure” “blood” “baths”
“sky” “sing” alliteration of assonance- torture, manipulation, entrapment juxtaposed with a nursery rhyme. Semantic field of violence
- highlights how terrifying world is going to be for innocent child not yet born
“grass” “grow” “trees” “sky” “birds”
images of nature, alliteration
“white light”- metaphor for wisdom from God, guidance God provides
- quotidian imagery (day to day things)
“forgive me” unborn child asking for forgiveness for the sins they will inevitably commit
“speak me” “think me” “live me” passiveness in voice, loss/lack of control
“rehearse” - in life you do not have the freedom to be yourself, almost like your playing a part in a play
semantic field- theatre/play - “rehearse” “play” “cues”
“must” “must” repetition of modal verbs reinforce lack of freedom
“frown at me” “laugh at me” “hector me” - world against them- complete isolation, enter a world and feel completely alone
“let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is god” - 1944 metaphor, fascist leaders (Hitler)
- responsible for killing of many, introduced censorship to control the way people thought
“fill me” fear of feeling empty, is the world that they are entering causing to loose any kind of sense of self/humanity
“drag me into a lethal automaton” “me a cog in a machine” metaphor of machine= dehumanisation, turn into weapon viewed by government that is needed in times of war
repetition of “a thing” reinforces this fear that they will loose humanity, indispensable, used and manipulated for someone else’s gain
“like water” “like thistledown”- simile/shapeless and directionless, cant hold water it lacks form, easily manipulated
fear of becoming a metaphorical “stone” cold and emotionless
“spill me” meaningless existence- lack of human wholeness
“other wise kill me” abruptness, nihilistic tone
structure and form
- dramatic monologue, eight stanzas, free verse= irregularity, incantation - repeated line
tone contrasts with expectations of an impending birth (fearful, critical, anguish, cynical)
Dichotomous relationship between imprisonment and freedom
irregular rhyme scheme mimics dichotomous relationship, anxiety and oppression
Piano by D H Lawrence
Themes: family, memory, power of music, childhood and masculinity
1st stanza
“softly” - provides gentle atmosphere
“take me back down”- power of song- instantly transported
“vista of years” imagery= beautiful memories
“boom” “tingling” onomatopoeia, shares how memory is so real to him
“a child” distance to himself
positive image of mother “poised” “smiles” “sings” graceful
aural imagery
sibilance “pressing” “small” “poised” “smiles” “as” “sings” = soothing tone, demonstrates the effect the mother had on him as a boy
2nd stanza
“in spite of myself” “insidious” “betrays” semantic field - uncomfortable to look back on
“heart of me weeps” personification- great saddens
“cosy parlour” “winter outside” contrast emphasises security and comfort family provides
“hymns” religious/wholesome
“tinkling” onomatopoeia- gentle and soothing his family was for him
“piano our guide”- simple picture of how life was then, image of uncomplicated life
semantic field of homelike imagery “Sunday evening” “home” “winter outside” “cosy” is juxtaposed as it ends with a sad tone
3rd stanza:
“black piano appassionato” plosives= hammering of strings mirrors emotions
“flood of remembrance” figurative language, power of memory, detached from his presence, melancholy
“i weep like a child” simile loss of masculinity, indicate expectations of masculinity at the time, reduces him to an infant
beg: reflective tone
end: nostalgic tone, depressing tone, despairing, bleak
structure and form:
three quatrains of rhyming couplets, written like a song, enjambment (flood of memory, emotion), trochaic meter = longing to return caesura mimics playing of music
Hide and Seek by Veron Scannell
Themes: negligence, childhood, loneliness, ironies in life
“hide and seek” childhood, thrill and adrenaline
“Call out. Call loud” in media res, throws the reader into the game
“im ready! come and find me” reported speech, youthful tone
“sacks in the too sheds smell like the seaside”
- sibilance olfactory image of seaside
“never find you” modal verb great confidence, outwit their friends
“prowling” predatory= vulnerability
“they” friends are nameless, sinister and threatening
Lines 5–8 are random sentences that do not seem to follow a logical order:
- parataxis and could reflect the child’s heightened senses and excitement as he is thinking of many things in a short space of time
semantic field of isolation “whispering” “hushed” - plotting against him
alliteration “heard” “hushed” - conscious of breathing
- supported with imperative “dont breathe” “dont move” short sentence create a sense of stillness
“cold bites through your coat” personification of growing discomfort “legs are stiff” “moves in your throat” semantic field of comfortability
- repeated exclamations ! excitement/certainty of his win
“darkening garden watches”
- “darkening” increases isolation and builds tension
“watches”- personification = threatening and vulnerability
“But where are they who sought you?” question, uncertainty, contrasts with previous assured tone. unanswered emphasises loneliness
- metaphor for life, might be left alone, dont need to depend on others
structure and form:
free verse, inconsistent rhyme scheme = uncertainty. one stanza= one moment of increase tention
- volta in last three lines
rhyme scheme pattern changes- mimicks realisation that he has been abandoned
Time - metaphor for growing up, not the same person he went to the shed
La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats
Themes: unreciprocated love, impossible love, illness, control, loss, power of love, danger of love
“La Belle Dame sans Merci”- archetypal femme fatale
“alone” “palely loitering” semantic field of isolation
“loitering” - suggests purposelessness, contrasts with stereotypical image of knight who would have great purpose
“sedge has withered from the lake and no birds sing”
- pathetic fallacy, bleak image of winter mirrors knights state
“haggard” “woe” contrast with stereotypical expectations of a knight who should be brave and strong
“squirrels granary is full, and the harvests done” optimistic tone, winter= symbol of death
metaphor “lily of thy brow” paleness of knight
“anguish moist and fever dew”
“fading rose”= once full of life and passion
“full beautiful- a faerys child her hair was long, her food was light”
- stereotypical faery
“wild”- desire to be free? or dangerous?
- worldly quality, ethereal quality, feminine and delicate
“garland for her head” “bracelets” “fragrant zone”
- circular images, adoration or entrapment?? - ambiguous links back to “wild”
“as” ambiguous language, misinterpreted
“moan” - satisfaction or of protest cant trust knight as narrator, think of other
“and nothing else saw all day long”
- entranced/monitoring ?
change in control
“she”
“roots of relish sweet” “honey wild and manna dew”
- ambiguity is she caring for him or poisoning him
“there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore”
ambiguous language
“and then i shut her wild wild eyes with kisses four”
- is he supressing her freedom or trying to comfort her
“lulled me asleep” ambiguity, under a spell? comforting?
“pale” “pale” “pale” repetition, plosives showing harshness
“pale kings” “princesses” “pale warriors”
- parallel with knight
- people she has manipulated
“hath thee in thrall” - has you in power
“starved lips” “horrid warning” images of suffering
repetition of “cold hill’s side”- feels lonely
“sojourn” temporary?
last three lines repetition to first three lines
- fever is he there to die/was he dying to begin with/did she poison him
- effect she has on him has has lost contact with the natural world
- cyclical structure - knight recounting everything, leads him back to presence
structure and form:
- 12 stanzas, quatrain all have 4 lines each, rhyme scheme abcb traditional medieval ballad.
- iambic tetrameter (3 lines)
