This poem of twenty four lines is divided into four stanzas of sestets. The poem follows the rhyme scheme ABCABC. In the last stanza, many of the rhymes are feminine—daughter, mother, water, other.
The erratic rhythm of the poem is sprung rhythm, designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is comprises of feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a varying number of syllables which are unstressed. Rhymes and near rhymes in this poem maintain a pattern, which creates a sense of unpredictability and uncontrollability, the very nature of grief itself.
The poet is the main character in the poem, with many first-person references. The use of poetic devices such as alliteration – “mankind making” and “flower …show more content…
Darkness is a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Life comes from darkness and goes back into darkness - “humbling darkness tells with silence the last light breaking”. This suggests the final day on earth, the last dawn. The sea, which is “tumbling in harness”, suggests horses or the waves being like sea horses. They will become still when the world ends. Lines such as “I must enter again” and use of words such as again and round suggest a cycle. The water bead may suggest the source of life or baptism in the Christian tradition. The poet also enters the synagogue of nature and so establishes the holiness of nature. The poet also uses words rich with religious symbolism in particular - mourn, darkness, last light, humbling, salt, seed. Zion, synagogue, grave, and, of course, death.
The poem is written in the first person and it reveals more about the poet and his refusal to mourn, than the child. The child is mentioned for the first time in the third stanza – “the majesty and burning of the child’s death.”
He views her death as majestic and so elevates her death, giving it huge importance. In the fourth stanza, he refers to the girl as being from London, which is personified in the poem as her mother. She lies buried with those who have died before her, other Londoners.
“The grains beyond age” may refer to the dead who have turned to grains of dust. “The dark veins of her mother” may refer to the soil strata of the earth, the soil of
The erratic rhythm of the poem is sprung rhythm, designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is comprises of feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a varying number of syllables which are unstressed. Rhymes and near rhymes in this poem maintain a pattern, which creates a sense of unpredictability and uncontrollability, the very nature of grief itself.
The poet is the main character in the poem, with many first-person references. The use of poetic devices such as alliteration – “mankind making” and “flower …show more content…
Darkness is a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Life comes from darkness and goes back into darkness - “humbling darkness tells with silence the last light breaking”. This suggests the final day on earth, the last dawn. The sea, which is “tumbling in harness”, suggests horses or the waves being like sea horses. They will become still when the world ends. Lines such as “I must enter again” and use of words such as again and round suggest a cycle. The water bead may suggest the source of life or baptism in the Christian tradition. The poet also enters the synagogue of nature and so establishes the holiness of nature. The poet also uses words rich with religious symbolism in particular - mourn, darkness, last light, humbling, salt, seed. Zion, synagogue, grave, and, of course, death.
The poem is written in the first person and it reveals more about the poet and his refusal to mourn, than the child. The child is mentioned for the first time in the third stanza – “the majesty and burning of the child’s death.”
He views her death as majestic and so elevates her death, giving it huge importance. In the fourth stanza, he refers to the girl as being from London, which is personified in the poem as her mother. She lies buried with those who have died before her, other Londoners.
“The grains beyond age” may refer to the dead who have turned to grains of dust. “The dark veins of her mother” may refer to the soil strata of the earth, the soil of