Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker is an unidentified individual expressing their feelings and yearnings towards a lover; additional context tells us that this poem is largely autobiographical, and the speaker is likely the author, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Form and Meter
The poem is an Italian sonnet comprising of an octave and a sestet. It is written in iambic pentameter and has an ABBA ABBA CDCDCD rhyme scheme.
Metaphors and Similes
The poem as a whole is an extended metaphor, in which the speaker's thoughts are represented as vines and the lover is represented as a tree.
Alliteration and Assonance
Assonant "ee" sounds occur frequently—for instance, in the sentence "About thee, as wild vines, about a tree" or "Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee." Alliterative "th" sounds are also frequent, as in "I will not have my thoughts instead of thee" and "I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud"
Irony
The more the speaker imagines her lover in an attempt to feel close to him, the more isolated and cut off she feels from him.
Genre
Petrarchan/Italian sonnet
Setting
The poem's setting is vague, but its metaphorical scenarios take place in a forest or jungle
Tone
Romantic; Vulnerable
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the poem is the speaker. The antagonist is her thoughts, which mar the reality of the romance.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is internal: the speaker feels torn between her drive to imagine and her fear of imaginative excess.
Climax
The climax occurs after line eight, when the speaker urges the lover to free himself from her thoughts.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The poem makes no explicit allusions, but it does allude to the real-life relationship between the poet and Robert Browning.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
In the phrase "the straggling green," the color green is used as metonymy to represent vines.
Personification
In a sense, the speaker personifies the natural world, first using natural objects as metaphors for people and then personifying those objects by imagining them acting in human-like ways.
Hyperbole
The word "everywhere" in the phrase "Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!" is hyperbolic.
Onomatopoeia
"Shattered” and “rustle” are examples of onomatopoeia.
