Robert Burns: Poems Literary Elements

Robert Burns: Poems Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The action in the poem "Address to the Devil" is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view.

Form and Meter

The poem "Ae Fond Kiss" is written in an iambic pentameter form.

Metaphors and Similes

The term "dog" is used in the poem "Address to the Devil" as a metaphor to represent the normal person who is easy to be controlled and manipulated.

Alliteration and Assonance

We have an alliteration in "Afton Water" in the line "There daily I wander as noon rises high,".

Irony

We have an irony in the poem "Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes" in which the narrator claims that the water is extremely dangerous and yet we see that he continues to want to bathe in it and explore it.

Genre

The poem "Address to the Devil" is an meditative poem.

Setting

Because "Afton Water" is a meditative poem, there is no fixed setting.

Tone

The tone used in "Address to the Devil" is an reverential one.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist in "Ae Fond Kiss" is the narrator and the antagonist is his lover.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in "Duncan Gray" is between desire and those things in a person's life which have substance but do not bring any type of happiness.

Climax

The poem "Highland Mary" reaches its climax when the narrator and his lover share a passionate kiss.

Foreshadowing

At the beginning of the song "Afton Water," the narrator describes a character who is sleeping and how it is in a complete state of repose. This description foreshadows the later description of the character who had died.

Understatement

We have an understatement at the beginning of the poem "Duncan Gray" when the narrator claims that the sole purpose of the main character is to seduce as many women as possible. Later in this poem, this is proven to be an understatement because the narrator admits that the character had other interests as well.

Allusions

One of the main allusions we find in "Afton Water" is the idea that death is not something to be scared of but rather a place and time where everyone will have the possibility to taste freedom and happiness.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The term love is used in "Duncan Gray" as a general term to make reference to both physical and intellectual attraction.

Personification

We have a personification in the line "Ca' them where the burnie rows," in the poem "Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes".

Hyperbole

We have a hyperbole in the line "Deep in heart-wrung tears" in the poem "Ae Fond Kiss".

Onomatopoeia

We have an onomatopoeia in the poem "Ae Fond Kiss" in the line "Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!".

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