The Lammas Hireling Flashcards
‘After the fair, I’d still a light heart’
Poem starts with a positive tone and joyful atmosphere. The fair is described with connotations of fun and celebration.
‘He struck so cheap’
Juxtaposition describes how the hireling only demanded low wages. The verb ‘struck’ has forceful connotations which foreshadows later violence.
‘cattle doted on him’
-Implies the hireling’s unusual affinity with the natural world and hints at his own inhuman identity.
‘Then one night’
Conveys a dramatic change in time and tone as the tone becones darker and more serious
‘Disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife’
Plosive alliteration signals a change to a more troubling and darker tone.
‘In the light from the dark lantern’
Oxymoronic image blends light and dark imagery which conveys a sense of confusion and disorder as the speaker discovers the hirelings true identity.
‘To go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow’
Dialect relates to some sort of folklore which suggests that damage to a hare leads to bad luck
‘The moon came out. By it’s yellow witness’
Personification suggests the natural world observes and judges the speaker’s transgressions.
‘Now my herd’s elf shot’
Sperakers herd is now cursed which juxtaposes the beginning where ‘yields doubled’
‘Casting balls from half crowns’
Describes how the speaker now spends his nights making bullets from old coins which juxtaposes the start of the poem conveying how the money he saved on the hireling is now worthless.
‘It has been an hour since my last confession.’
Final oxymoronic statement to convey how the speaker is stuck in a cycle of seeking forgiveness but never feeling truly absolved.
