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Analyze "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Sam McGee
Analyze "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Sam McGee
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“The Cremation of Sam McGee” includes several of literary devices that make it an excellent piece of poetry. In just the first few stanzas, as readers we can find several examples of those literary devices. The first thing that we notice is rhyme scheme, because it is not the same inall the stanzas. In the first stanza of this poem, the rhyme scheme is not very regular, and has a form of abcbdefe. In later stanzas, the rhyme scheme it’s more regular with a form aabbcc.
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly.
Roethke’s poem has a regular rhyme scheme that can be expressed as “abab”. The only exception to this scheme would be the first stanza as the words “dizzy” (2) and “easy” (4) are slant rhymes. Only the end syllables of the two words sound the same. As a result, the use of a consistent “abab” rhyme scheme allows the poem to reflect the
The use of diction and structure are the base of any literary work. Without the use of diction and structure how the author would get his message to the reader since this is not a conversation. Not being able to hear the tone of your voice or facial expressions. It is important that your foundation is strong and connects with the theme. Throughout the poem there is not structured rhyme scheme, though two lines do rhyme. In lines two and three, “And the insurance man is gone and the lights is back on” (Clifton). Here Clifton rhymes the words “gone” and “on” but there is a purpose for this. These two words are an opposite, that’s exactly why she made only these two rhymes. Emphasizing “gone” and “on” shows that good times come a...
This poem is written in eleven quatrains. All of these quatrains follow an abcb rhyme scheme. An example of this from lines 1-4 are “toune” being a, “wine” being b, “salior” being c, and “mine” being b. This means that the poem was written in closed form. It also follows a meter with four beats in the a and c lines and three beats in the b lines. An example of the four beats from line 5 is “Up and spak an eldern I Knicht”. The example of three beats from line 6 is “Sat at the kings richt kne”.
Anybody can write and persuade a certain audience, based on how the writer wants their audience to look at the situation. In Steve Earle’s essay “A Death in Texas”, he persuades his readers that he wants to believe that Johnathan Wayne Nobles was rehabilitated. In the essay, Nobles was a changed man within faith from becoming a religious man within the prison walls. Prison guards learned to trust Nobles with his quick-witted charm and friendliness. Steve persuaded himself that Johnathan was a changed man from the words that they had exchanged over the years on paper. Reality states that no matter how much someone changed in the present, it doesn’t change what they have done in the past. Earle describes in the essay “There he will be pumped full of chemicals that will collapse his lungs and stop his heart forever” (Earle 73). He’s persuading the audience with horrid emotion with facts of a lethal injection that will happen to Johnathan. What Earle doesn’t describe is how gruesomely Johnathan’s murders were. In this world everyone has a chance to know right from wrong, even if someone was brought up wrong in the society. Johnathan was not rehabilitated, maybe at one point accepted his past, but he was still a murderer and a
One of the most used literary devices within this poem include alliteration and assonance. “He was floppy and sloppy and skinny and tall”, this shows one of the many examples of assonance found in this poem. Here the author used the sound -y for floppy, sloppy, and skinny. “I'll tell you the story of Cloony the Clown who worked in a circus that came through town”. This line displays an example of alliteration in the poem, the author uses the letter ‘C’ frequently in the sentence. The author uses assonance
The ironic use of rhyme and meter, or the lack thereof, is one of the devices Larkin uses to emphasize his need to break out of industrial society. The typical rhyme scheme is not followed, but instead an ironic rhyme scheme is used in the sonnet in the form of abab cdcd efg efg. Larkin writes this poem as a sonnet but at the same time diverges from what a typical sonnet is supposed to be. He is commenting on society’s inclination to form restrictions on those within it. By writing out of the accepted form of a sonnet, his writing becomes more natural because of a lack of constraints due to following certain rules and fitting a certain form. He breaks free and writes as he pleases and does not conform to society. Just as with the rhyme, ...
Poetic and rhetorical devices are used to create the tone of a poem. With a defined and structured tone, the meaning of a poem can be more clearly and effectively conveyed. The poem “Jehovah buried, Satan dead” by E.E. Cummings has a distinct meaning that has been heightened by its tone. The tone is also accented through the use of rhetorical and poetic devices. A few of these devices include onomatopoeia, conceit, slant rhyme, the form, sound, and repetition. Starting with an evaluation of the meaning, the tone and rhetorical and poetic devices become identifiable.
Similarly, diction is another crucial component of a poem, as it arguably contributes the most to establishing a theme. In “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?,” the diction helps support the reader’s own assumptions of the relationship before death between the speaker and whomever is being discussed. As proof, early in the
The poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” is a poem that does not really have a set pattern, and that is known as being free verse. The first two lines of this poem have a trochaic meter, which means that it begins as stressed, has an unstressed, and then finishes with a stressed syllable type pattern, that is demonstrated in, “SO much DEpends / UPon” (1-2). This is as if the “so” has the long “O” sound which is stressed, then has “much” which is not, then “depends” has two syllables but starts out with a stressed. The third and fourth lines have anapestic meter, which is two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable, suggested in, “a red WHEEl / barrow” (3-4). I have capitalized “WHEEl” because is demonstrating how I read the line in this poem, giving an example of how I concluded that these lines were in anapestic meter.
...cheme, ABABB, CDCDD, EFEFF, GHGHH, etcetera. While it does follow a certain pattern, the rhyme scheme is a bit unbalanced. It is heavy on the B rhymes, the D rhymes, and so on. This imbalance in rhyme adds to the thought of the speaker’s imbalance. The most striking thing about the poem’s form is that there is no shift in its sound at any point. While describing the tumultuous storm, he uses clear language. His tone does not change when the woman enters his house; he does not give the reader any indication that he is or is not happy that she is there. The reader expects some sort of change in language as the man murders the woman, but the poem remains in the same rhythmic pattern. All of these details seem small and may even be missed upon first reading the poem, but they add enormously to the thought that the speaker may be suffering from his own type of imbalance.
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.
The poem opens, “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain/And Mourners to and fro,” the poetess uses capitalization to highlight the speaker’s tactile feelings or something peculiar (1-2). The capitalization of “Funeral” and “Brain” is significant for there is death physically occurring inside the speaker (1). The funeral serves as a suitable metaphor conveying the turmoil arising inside the speaker’s brain. The “Mourners,” a capitalized word, are moving “to and fro,” which when compared to traditional mourners, these actions are peculiar (2). The last lines of the stanzas follow, “Kept treading—treading—till it seemed/That Sense was breaking through—,” introduces rhyme, and rhythm through auditory imagery (3-4). The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABCB where the second and fourth lines of the stanzas slant rhyme. “Fro” and “through” are the slant rhymes in this stanza. The auditory imagery of the “Mourners” repetitive “treading” connotes stomping feet, which introduces a steady march of a funeral procession rhythm (2,4). This rhythm of a march in the brain of the speaker introduces the idea of a constant, steady pressure on the mental process of the speaker. The repetition of treading emphasizes the action because of it’s ability to cause “Sense [to] break[ing] through” (4). “Sense,” is defined as being fragile as it is able to be broken (4). The speaker is physicall...
Where as, 'The Chalk Pit' is made up of one stanza and is in the form iambic pentameter. There is no noticeable rhyme scheme. Having only one stanza keeps the conversation between the two speakers flowing which conveys a more natural image of the place to the reader.