Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poet/A Northerner
Form and Meter
Cinquain; AABBC; Iambic tetrameter
Metaphors and Similes
Simile:
-"It was as if an earthquake rent"
Metaphor:
-The cannons thundering is a metaphor for the war itself
-The bells' carols are a metaphor for peace, love, goodwill, and Christianity
Alliteration and Assonance
n/a
Irony
n/a
Genre
Poetry
Setting
Christmas Day in the North during the Civil War; 1864 more specifically
Tone
First hopeful, then despairing, then hopeful and triumphant
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: The speaker, the North Antagonist: The South (represented by the cannons)
Major Conflict
If the pure and hopeful tones of the bells will win out over the thundering, accursed cannons of the South during the Civil War
Climax
When the cannons drown out the bells and plunge the poet into despair.
Foreshadowing
n/a
Understatement
n/a
Allusions
-"cannon thundered in the South" alludes to the Civil War
Metonymy and Synecdoche
n/a
Personification
-"And with the sound / The carols drowned"
-"For hate is strong / And mocks the song"
Hyperbole
-"It was as an earthquake rent / The hearth-stones of a continent"
Onomatopoeia
n/a
