Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
First-person speaker of the poem, a man in love with a woman named Celia
Form and Meter
free verse
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphors for intercourse:
"Through Love's alembic, and with chemic skill
From the mix'd mass one sovereign balm derive,
Then bring that great elixir to thy hive."
Alliteration and Assonance
"There, no rude sounds shake us with sudden starts"
-repetition of /s/
Irony
"He bids me fight and kill ; or else he brands
With marks of infamy my coward hands.
And yet religion bids from blood-shed fly,
And damns me for that act."
The speaker of the poem talks about the Honour that is personified and "bids" him to "fight and kill" all the while the religion forbids those acts; so whatever he chooses it will be deemed wrong by religious or social principles.
Genre
lyric poetry
Setting
A man about to make love to his love Celia for the first time convincing her to the act by comparing it to a fictional Utopia place Elysium where social or religious rules don't apply.
Tone
desperate, cynical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Speaker of the poem, a man who finds the social and religious concepts limiting and futile; Antagonist: social and religious terms and concpets
Major Conflict
The speaker of the poem wants to break free of the shackles of social and religious constructs and convincing his lover Celia to see through his eyes as well and enjoy what the Nature's given them.
Climax
The speaker's persuasion of his lover Celia to enjoy their natural bodily desires turns into a societal criticism where men who are out of its norms are deemed cowards and atheists and women prostitutes.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
Mention of the Roman Lucrece in a way that understates her story (she was raped and committed suicide as a result):
"The Roman Lucrece there reads the divine
Lectures of love's great master, Aretine,
And knows as well as Lais how to move
Her pliant body in the act of love"
Allusions
Allusions to prominent historical and mythological figures
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"If thou complain of wrong, and call my sword
To carve out thy revenge, upon that word"
-sword is referring to courage and honor rather than an actual object
Personification
Personification of Honour:
"The giant, Honour, that keeps cowards out,
Is but a masquer, and the servile rout"
Hyperbole
The entire poem could be seen as an exaggeration of the act of intercourse.
Onomatopoeia
"Meanwhile the bubbling stream shall court the shore,
Th' enamour'd chirping wood-choir shall adore
In varied tunes the deity of love"
