Lines Flashcards
What is the main theme?
Passage of time
What is the rhyme scheme?
ABBAB
What do the lines alternate between?
Iambic and troachic pentameter
‘yielded’
Women has surrended photos- speaker is demanding whilst she is hesitant
What device is used in ‘thick’ ‘rich’ ‘confectionery’ and ‘nutritious’?
Semantic field of food - speaker wishes to consume the images. The consumption is unnecessary by pleasurable as he looks into her past
What could the repetition of ‘too’ in ‘too much’ and ‘too rich’ represent?
Could suggest the woman’s past is filled with experiences - perhaps an excess of them
What device is used in ‘in pigtails… a sweet girl graduate; or lifting a heavy-headed rose’?
The listing shows how he is drawn to images of her youthful past. The listing is emphatic of him consuming the images rapidly with a frienzed excitement - cannot get enough
‘disquieting’ ‘loll’ ‘not quite your class’
Speaker is jealous of see her with other men - presents them as unserious but still sees them as a threat
What device is used in ‘But o, photography’?
Volta - speaker begins to discuss the merits and limitations of photography
How does the speaker feel about photography in ‘Faithful and disappointing’?
He praises photography for capturing the truth, yet it is also disappointing as we are confronted with imperfections of reality
What can be inferred abut ‘this is a real girl in a real place’?
Emphasises the true depiction of the girl - blemishes and all- sees what a flattering portrait may not show him
What can be inferred through ‘contract my heart by looking out of date’?
Speaker feels a sense of melancholy that the photos represent a past that is out of date and irrecoverable.
What device is used in ‘cry’ x2 ‘grief’ and ‘mourn’?
Semantic field of sorrow presents the past as bringing sadness and pain, as the past is a time we can never recapture or change
What device is used in ‘It holds you like a heaven’?
The simile suggests that her past self is preserved forever, in a state of perfect, almost holy, purity. Also preserves the woman in an eternal state of wonder and purity
Why else may the speaker see the photography as ‘disappointing’?
It is too ‘faithful’ - it does not leave room for imagination
