Ae Fond Kiss

Ae Fond Kiss Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The speaker of this poem is a young man who has parted ways with his lover, leaving the speaker feeling miserable.

Form and Meter

The poem consists of three octaves, which are divided into four sets of rhyming couplets

Metaphors and Similes

The phrase "nae cheerfu twinkle lights me" metaphorically compares light to hope, while the line "warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee" uses a metaphor to compare the speaker's cries to money.

Alliteration and Assonance

The "D" sounds in "Dark despair around benights me" are alliterative, their repetition stressing the inescapability of the speaker's despair, as the "F" sounds in the phrase "first and fairest."
The long "E" sounds in "star of hope she leaves him" are assonant, extending the length of the line and making it sound more dramatic and lamenting.

Irony

The poem's central irony is the inescapable but unexpected fact that, for the speaker, love and heartache can't be separated. Rather than his love being the opposite of his sadness, his love is the catalyst for his sadness.

Genre

Aubade, love poem

Setting

Though the poem's setting isn't directly stated, the speaker's Scottish dialect hints at a Scottish setting

Tone

Mournful, lamenting, regretful

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is the speaker, while the antagonist is not a person but a situation—his obligation to say farewell to his lover.

Major Conflict

The poem's major conflict is the speaker's loneliness as he departs from his lover.

Climax

The poem's climax is the moment when the speaker wishes his lover a joyful future in spite of his own hopelessness.

Foreshadowing

Understatement

The speaker's use of the word "fancy" to describe his love is an understatement: while that word typically refers to a fleeting interest, here, he uses it to describe an enduring love.

Allusions

The speaker refers to his lover by a specific name, Nancy—perhaps a private allusion to a woman Burns had a relationship with, sometimes called Nancy by friends.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The phrase "heart-wrung tears" uses the heart as a metonymic representation of the speaker's emotions.

Personification

Fortune is personified as a human here in the lines "Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,/While the star of hope she leaves him?"
The speaker's sighs and groans of sadness are also personified, described as "warring."

Hyperbole

The poem as a whole is hyperbolic, using the word "forever" to describe both the speaker's love and his separation from his lover, describing the speaker's situation as entirely without hope, and using words like "fairest" and "best" to describe the lover.

Onomatopoeia

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