Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The Young Man
Form and Meter
ABAB
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphor: Life is spoken of as a battle that we must fight to survive.
Metaphor: A person's accomplishments are "footprints on the sands of time"
Simile: "Still, like muffled drums, are beating / Funeral marches to the grave" compares our hearts to quiet drums whose rhythms beat onward to death
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliteration: "In the world's broad field of battle, / In the bivouac of Life, / Be not like dumb, driven cattle!"
Assonance: "Still achieving, still pursuing"
Irony
-It is ironic that a young man has a better sense of the meaning of life rather than an older teacher. We expect experience to lead to wisdom; but the speaker argues that the teacher's resignation and refusal of activity has led him to miss life's meaning. Since he thinks life is worthless, he has not been open to learning from experience, and his greater experience has not led to insights about life.
Genre
Poetry
Setting
The 19th century
Tone
Hopeful, dynamic, sincere
Protagonist and Antagonist
None
Major Conflict
Whether the young man will be able to convince the psalmist—and himself, and perhaps the reader—that life is more than just waiting for death, but rather about action and striving and hope.
Climax
When the young man claims we must "Act,— act in the living present!"
Foreshadowing
n/a
Understatement
n/a
Allusions
-"Dust thou art, to dust returnest" alludes to Genesis 3:19
-The words "psalmist" and "numbers" allude to books of the Bible
Metonymy and Synecdoche
n/a
Personification
-"Let the dead Past bury its dead!"
Hyperbole
n/a
Onomatopoeia
-"muffled drums"
