Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poems alternate between first-person and third-person points of view, all from the perspective of the narrator.
Form and Meter
The form and meter vary by poem; some are written in iambic pentameter ("Adam's Curse") while others are not ("The Withering of the Boughs"). Many rhyme, some using heroic couplets ("The Folly of Being Comforted"), while other do not rhyme at all ("The Old Age of Queen Maeve").
Metaphors and Similes
In "The Old Age of Queen Maeve," the narrator says that Queen Maeve had "wisdom that caught fire like the dried flax." The narrator is reminiscing about Queen Maeve's former dignity and capabilities. In this simile, he is remarking that her wisdom could be as brilliant and fiery as burning grain, emphasizing her inspiring insights. Additionally, in the same poem, her husband Ailell speaks with the voice of Aengus, saying that those "that wander with hand clasping hand" have beauty, but "their beauty's like a hollow dream," emphasizing their deceptive appearance.
Alliteration and Assonance
In the second line of "The Song of Red Hanrahan," Yeats uses the alliterative phrase "the bitter black wind that blows."
Irony
In "The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water," the titular old men look in the water and admire their reflections, but they say, "All that's beautiful drifts away like the waters," ironically referring to themselves as beautiful even though "they had hands like claws, and their knees were twisted like the old thorn trees." In vainly saying that all beauty passes away, they haven't realized that their own beauty has passed away.
Genre
anti-Romantic poetry collection, with the addition of a play
Setting
The setting of the poems varies greatly, but some take place in ancient Ireland, while others are modern and only look back to that time.
Tone
The narrator respects the old Irish legends, giving a beautiful yet sometimes detached commentary on different subjects.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: the narrator and his musings. Antagonist: the difficulty of creating beautiful things (as discussed in "Adam's Curse").
Major Conflict
In "Adam's Curse," the narrator and his female companion discuss the troubling difficulties of creating beautiful art.
Climax
In "Adam's Curse," the narrator and his female companion cease their despairing talk about the difficulties of creating beauty and simply take in the beauty around them, the narrator noticing how they'd grown "as weary hearted as that hollow moon."
Foreshadowing
In Adam's Curse, the poem opens with the line "We sat together at one summer's end." The end of summer mentioned here foreshadows and parallels the end of the period of effortless love the narrator mentions in the last lines of the poem.
Understatement
From "The Folly of Being Comforted":
“Your well beloved’s hair has threads of grey
And little shadows come about her eyes." (ln 2-3)
Allusions
Many of the poems, including "The Old Age of Queen Maeve" and "Baile and Aillinn," reference many places and characters from both ancient Irish history and its mythology, including Cruachan, the Sidhe, Fergus, Nessa, Aengus, Emain, Muirthemne, and more.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
From "The Song of Red Hanrahan": “Under a bitter black wind that blows from the left hand" (ln 2).
In this line, "left hand" does not literally mean a hand; it is referring to the leftward direction from which the wind is blowing.
Personification
From "The Withering of the Boughs":
"...the moon was murmuring to the birds" (ln 1)
Hyperbole
From "The Withering of the Boughs":
“No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind,
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.” (ln 23-24)
Onomatopoeia
From "In the Seven Woods:"
“I have heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods
Make their faint thunder, and the garden bees
Hum in the lime tree flowers” (ln 1-3).
