The Widow's Lament in Springtime

The Widow's Lament in Springtime Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The speaker is a recently widowed woman, looking out at her backyard in spring.

Form and Meter

The poem is written in free verse.

Metaphors and Similes

N/A

Alliteration and Assonance

Alliteration is present in the F sounds of "flames as it has flamed."

Irony

N/A

Genre

Nature poetry, elegy

Setting

The speaker's backyard in springtime

Tone

Mournful and elegiac

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is the speaker and the antagonist is her grief.

Major Conflict

The speaker is unable to enjoy the beauty of springtime because she is overwhelmed by grief and memories of her late husband.

Climax

The climax of the poem occurs when the speaker imagines collapsing into the white flowers and marshland in a meadow.

Foreshadowing

The first line ("Sorrow is my own yard") foreshadows that the poem will be dealing with loss and grieving.

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

N/A

Hyperbole

N/A

Onomatopoeia

N/A

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