Responsibilities: Poems (1914) Literary Elements

Responsibilities: Poems (1914) Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The poem "All Things Can Tempt Me" is narrated from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.

Form and Meter

The poem "Player Queen" is written in free verse.

Metaphors and Similes

The visions in "Player Queen" are used as a metaphor to represent every mother's desire to see her child succeed in life and have a comfortable and happy life.

Alliteration and Assonance

We have an alliteration in the line "'Go and love, go and love, young man," in the poem "The Young Man's Song".

Irony

We have an ironic element in "Fallen Majesty" where we see that the Queen, despite being described as having lost all her power, still has a lot of influence over politics and the population in general.

Genre

"All Things Can Tempt Me" is a meditative poem.

Setting

The action in "Player Queen" takes place inside the mother's home.

Tone

The tone used in "All Things Can Tempt Me" is a neutral one.

Protagonist and Antagonist

In "Player Queen" the protagonist is the mother and the antagonist is the father who leaves his family.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in "The Young Man's Song" is between the past and the present.

Climax

The poem "Paudeen" reaches its climax when the narrator reaches the conclusion that everyone is equal in front of God and as such he should not see himself as superior.

Foreshadowing

The title of the poem "Fallen Majesty" foreshadows the way in which the monarch will be described in the poem as a person who is no longer relevant and who can no longer hold the interest of the public.

Understatement

When the narrator claims in the beginning of the poem "Fallen Majesty" that the monarch is no longer popular because of her age is an understatement because it is later proven that the monarch lost her subjects because of controversial ideas.

Allusions

One of the main allusion in "Paudeen" is the idea that humans are similar to animals when they get enraged. This is alluded through the comparison between two men who are fighting and two birds who are fighting.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The term gold is used in the poem "Player Queen" as a general way to make reference to a person's good fortune.

Personification

We have a personification in the line "Till the stars had run away," in the poem "The Young Man's Song".

Hyperbole

We have a hyperbole in the line "Put off that mask of burning gold" in the poem "The Mask".

Onomatopoeia

We have an onomatopoeia in the line "the poet sing it with such airs" in the poem "All Things Can Tempt Me".

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