poems

Question 1

As froth on the face of the deep.

Answer 1

-Repeated similes (anaphora ‘as’) serve to make the unintelligible relatable
-‘froth’ & ‘foam’ joined with alliteration symbolise life without God. - Genesis reference
-continuance of incompletion: dreams at the waking of sleep -> never really meaningful and rather futile
-‘day and night’ - antithesis to emphasise God’s presence
-listing of grand to domestic imagery - the importance of God in every aspect of life
-iambic tetrameter used throughout to represent the security of God/ trying to explain faith
-final line completes the similes -> demonstrates that life with God is complete

Question 2

piteous my rhyme is

Answer 2

-poem begins in an ambiguous manner
-asyndetic listing and use of anaphora emphasise the disappointment in worldly love
-rhetorical question suggests narrator’s frustration
-worldly love is presented as having a time-stamp -> futile and not really worthwhile

-change in tone (more optimistic)
-oxymoron - proves that eternal love can defeat any pains in one’s life
-eternal love has no time-stamp -> eternal and worthy
-final line concludes with the importance of eternal love

Question 3

an apple gathering

Answer 3

-dramatic monologue - personal account
-sexual connotations ‘plucked’- plosive sound -> negative tone ^ euphemism
-‘due season’ - she gave herself away and did not trust God’s timing - Victorian era
^ premature indulgence
-regular alternate rhyme scheme - makes warning more efficacious
-‘dangling basket’ - consequences
^ fallen woman - bad connotations
-‘Lilian’ ‘Lilias’ - lilies=pure
^ unanimity - societal expectations
-regretful tone
-personal pronoun at the end proves how she will be for the rest of her life-span -> pariah