Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems Literary Elements

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

-"The Psalm of Life"-The speaker of the poem is not named, he is addressing the reader or the listener of the poem.
-"The Village Blacksmith"-third person speaker of the poem
-"The Child Asleep"-The speaker of the poem is the mother with a first person point of view.

Form and Meter

"The Psalm of Life": trochaic meter, quatrain, abab

Metaphors and Similes

"Be not like dumb, driven cattle!"
-"The Psalm of Life"
"And the muscles of his brawney arms Are strong as iron bands."
-"The Village Blacksmith"

Alliteration and Assonance

"I watch to see thee, nourish thee"-repetition of (i:)
-"The Child Asleep"
"Whilst the wind, with sighing, wooes"-repetition of (w)
-"The Angler's Song"

Irony

N/A

Genre

lyric poetry

Setting

"Evangeline"-setting at the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians

Tone

"The Psalm of Life"-hopeful, thoughtful

Protagonist and Antagonist

"Evangeline"-Protagonist:Evangeline, Antagonist: British who separate Evangeline from her lover

Major Conflict

"The Psalm of Life"-Major conflict is the finality of death and the difficulty of finding meaning in life.

Climax

"Evangeline"-As an old woman Evangeline starts working as a nurse and discovers her lover among the injured, who then dies at her arms.

Foreshadowing

"Oh, when shall he, for whom I sigh in vain, Beside me watch to see thy waking smile?"
-"The Child Asleep"
-If the mother sighs for her child's father in vain, it means that he will never watch their baby.

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

"Dust thou art, to dust returnest"
"The Psalm of Life"-allusions to the Bible

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

"The Bird and the Ship"-In this poem both the bird and the ship are personified and are having a conversation.
"Would you not say he slept on Death's cold arm?"
-"The Child Asleep"

Hyperbole

"And the muscles of his brawney arms
Are strong as iron bands."
-"The Village Blacksmith"

Onomatopoeia

"And the rustling reeds pipe loud."
-"The Angler's Song"

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