Title: She Walks in Beauty
Author: Lord Byron
Speaker: The poem is told from the perspective of someone who is in love with the woman that is being described. There are no hints that point towards the fact that both the characters know each other. Even more, specific phrases such as “nameless grace” or “tell of” give the impression that the person who loves the woman has never actually met her, but rather just admired her from afar. This admiration for the woman is the tone that is set throughout the entire piece and the speaker falls deeply into reverence of the mysterious woman, her beauty, and her pureness.
Structure: The poem is divided into three stanzas, each with six lines that are formatted in the same way. The lines have a pattern that goes: no indent, indent, no indent, and indent. I believe this pattern is set to give a rhythmic tone to the poem, and if taken very far it could even be argued that the author wants to imitate the rhythm of walking because of the title. The ideas of the piece are stipulated in a specific order, where the first stanza deals with her physical fairness and the power that this trait has. The second stanza touches upon the subject of perfection and how the smallest of changes would have ruined her image. It also deals with her pureness of the mind. The last stanza is corroboration to what has been said before, and the speaker draws a conclusion form all that has been described before: that her “love is innocent”.
Theme: The poem deals with love, and this is expressed through various examples. It highlights the fact that the woman is perfect not only in the physical aspect which is proved by the comparisons to magnificent nature, but also in the spiritual way which is stated by pointing towards a good heart, a pure mind, and a fair personality.
Figures of speech: Lord Byron used different literary devices throughout the text. In the first line, for example, there is a simile that compares the woman to the night and its beauty. This makes the image of beauty more objective because an example of what is beautiful to the writer gives other people the chance to measure this beauty with their own scales. The author also uses alliteration in phrases like “cloudless climes and starry skies” that put emphasis on what is being said. Personification is another device that is commonly used in this poem and this is the case because by giving static objects qualities of life scenes come to life and beauty is accented.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Symptoms of Love- Poem
Title: Symptoms of love
Author: Robert Graves
Speaker: The speaker of the poem is describing the effects of love on people, without any particular inclusion in the subject. The tone of the speaker is informative, yet the information is not told in an official manner but instead a tone that comes off as a little satirical and burlesque. The speaker gives the impression that although what he is narrating is true, it does not cease to be a ridiculous truth.
Structure: The piece has five stanzas, each made up of three lines. The stanzas have no preset structure, but all coincide in the fact that the last line is shorter than the rest and has a smaller syllable count. The poem has for sentences which are the four main ideas.
Theme: The poem discusses love, and the effect it has on people. Although there is truth, the truth seems to be ridiculed because the speaker appears to know that love is a feeling that puts even the most sensate of men and women to shame, and that it impairs the ability to reason skillfully. The poem also, at the end, touches on the subject of dignity, and how it is that we let one person make us stop reasoning and take a plunge.
Figures of speech: There are several literary devices and figures of speech in the piece. There is metaphor throughout, as love is being compared to things such as a headache, a blurry vision, the search for omens, and nightmares. There is also listing in the piece, which can be seen clearly when describing all the symptoms of love, and there is also sarcasm towards the end.
Symbolism: Most of the comparisons in the poem are symbolic. Love is, of course, not an actual headache or bad vision; it does not actually create omens or nightmares. These juxtapositions are used as symbols of the types of things people feel when they are in love. A headache is more like a plethora of problems and complications. The blurry vision refers to the decrease in reasoning and a more instinctive approach to matters of the heart. The search for omens and the nightmares refer to the hope of always hearing good news about relationships and the constant fears that things are not going so great. For the overall feel of the piece, symbolism is crucial and vital.
Author: Robert Graves
Speaker: The speaker of the poem is describing the effects of love on people, without any particular inclusion in the subject. The tone of the speaker is informative, yet the information is not told in an official manner but instead a tone that comes off as a little satirical and burlesque. The speaker gives the impression that although what he is narrating is true, it does not cease to be a ridiculous truth.
Structure: The piece has five stanzas, each made up of three lines. The stanzas have no preset structure, but all coincide in the fact that the last line is shorter than the rest and has a smaller syllable count. The poem has for sentences which are the four main ideas.
Theme: The poem discusses love, and the effect it has on people. Although there is truth, the truth seems to be ridiculed because the speaker appears to know that love is a feeling that puts even the most sensate of men and women to shame, and that it impairs the ability to reason skillfully. The poem also, at the end, touches on the subject of dignity, and how it is that we let one person make us stop reasoning and take a plunge.
Figures of speech: There are several literary devices and figures of speech in the piece. There is metaphor throughout, as love is being compared to things such as a headache, a blurry vision, the search for omens, and nightmares. There is also listing in the piece, which can be seen clearly when describing all the symptoms of love, and there is also sarcasm towards the end.
Symbolism: Most of the comparisons in the poem are symbolic. Love is, of course, not an actual headache or bad vision; it does not actually create omens or nightmares. These juxtapositions are used as symbols of the types of things people feel when they are in love. A headache is more like a plethora of problems and complications. The blurry vision refers to the decrease in reasoning and a more instinctive approach to matters of the heart. The search for omens and the nightmares refer to the hope of always hearing good news about relationships and the constant fears that things are not going so great. For the overall feel of the piece, symbolism is crucial and vital.
When You Are Old-Poem
Title: When You Are Old
Author: William Butler Yeats
Speaker: The poem is written by a man, and the man plans to include it in a book of poetry. This man is writing the poem to someone he loved who did not return this feeling. The tone of the piece is a mixture of nostalgia for the unrequited love and reprisal to the object of affection for being to vain to notice real love when it presented itself.
Structure: The poem is divided into 3 stanzas, each containing 4 lines, and each line containing 10 syllables. It is composed of two sentences, the first discussing the past that will be remembered by the reading if the poem and the second expressing the future of what will happen after the memories flood back.
Theme: The theme is not directly stated, but the reader can safely assume that the writer is talking to a person he once loved deeply. This person was beautiful and fair with a lot of suitors, and so embracing beauty and vanity looked not at the man that really loved her (the speaker of the poem) but to others who, when her age started to catch up with her, left her all alone. The theme is regret for not paying attention to real love when it happened.
Figures of speech: In the poem there is personification when her soul is described as a pilgrim soul and when the face is described as sorrowful), hyperbole when describing the consequences of age on the woman’s face, and metaphor in the last lines where love is said to go up to the mountains and disappear into the sky.
Symbolism: This poem does not have heavy symbolism, yet it has some important symbols. The face of the woman represents not only her face, but her entire persona. The face is used as a symbol for holistic beauty and fairness, while the soul is used as a symbol for personality, way of being, values, and feelings. Then, the night sky with stars serve as a symbol for the large amounts of people that, to her, are just there: people who have nothing to set one apart from another and to stand out.
Author: William Butler Yeats
Speaker: The poem is written by a man, and the man plans to include it in a book of poetry. This man is writing the poem to someone he loved who did not return this feeling. The tone of the piece is a mixture of nostalgia for the unrequited love and reprisal to the object of affection for being to vain to notice real love when it presented itself.
Structure: The poem is divided into 3 stanzas, each containing 4 lines, and each line containing 10 syllables. It is composed of two sentences, the first discussing the past that will be remembered by the reading if the poem and the second expressing the future of what will happen after the memories flood back.
Theme: The theme is not directly stated, but the reader can safely assume that the writer is talking to a person he once loved deeply. This person was beautiful and fair with a lot of suitors, and so embracing beauty and vanity looked not at the man that really loved her (the speaker of the poem) but to others who, when her age started to catch up with her, left her all alone. The theme is regret for not paying attention to real love when it happened.
Figures of speech: In the poem there is personification when her soul is described as a pilgrim soul and when the face is described as sorrowful), hyperbole when describing the consequences of age on the woman’s face, and metaphor in the last lines where love is said to go up to the mountains and disappear into the sky.
Symbolism: This poem does not have heavy symbolism, yet it has some important symbols. The face of the woman represents not only her face, but her entire persona. The face is used as a symbol for holistic beauty and fairness, while the soul is used as a symbol for personality, way of being, values, and feelings. Then, the night sky with stars serve as a symbol for the large amounts of people that, to her, are just there: people who have nothing to set one apart from another and to stand out.
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