Howard Nemerov: Poems Literary Elements

Howard Nemerov: Poems Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The poem ‘’Analogue’’ is told from the perspective of a first person subjective point of view.

Form and Meter

The poem ‘’Hide and Seek’’ is written in an iambic pentameter.

Metaphors and Similes

In the poem ‘’Behavior’’ the narrator compares a good deed with moving a turtle of a drive. This comparison is used here to show just how little humanity feels the need to do in order to feel they are doing something good in life.

Alliteration and Assonance

We find alliteration in the lines ‘’I held in my fingers the feather of a gull,/ Black, white and grey’’ in the poem ‘’Art Song’’.

Irony

We find an irony in the poem ‘’The Dancer’s Replay’’ in which, even though the narrator describes the human soul as being fragile, it is also described as having the power to carry a body on its back, or rather to support a great deal of pressure.

Genre

The poem ‘’Analogue’’ is a meditative poem.

Setting

The action in the poem ‘’Art Song’’ takes place during an evening on an unknown beach.

Tone

The tone in the poem entitled ‘’Prism’’ is a neutral one.

Protagonist and Antagonist

In the poem ‘’Hide and Seek’’ the protagonist is the sun and the antagonists are the unknown people who hide from the sun and from its influence.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the poem ‘’Art Song’’ is between the narrator’s desire to write and the different problems he has to face during his creative process.

Climax

The poem entitled ‘’Behavior’’ reaches the climax when the narrator and his partner sit down and have dinner together.

Foreshadowing

The title of the poem ‘’Fugue’’ foreshadows the rapid pace which exists in the poem and also the frequent mentioning of hurrying present in the poem.

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

One of the important allusions in the poem ‘’Behavior’’ is the idea that men and women like to lie to themselves and tell one another that they are good people when in reality, at the end of the day, everyone is hypocritical and not true to themselves.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The term ‘’soul’’ is used in the poem ‘’The Dancer’s Replay’’ as a general term to make reference to the spiritual inclinations a person may have and also towards the feelings a person may have.

Personification

We find a personification in the poem ‘’Analogue’’ in the lines ‘’in the shuddering leaves, the shoaling fish,/ The continuum nondenumerable and dense’’.

Hyperbole

We find a hyperbole in the poem ‘’Hide and Seek’’ in the lines ‘’If individuals best coalesce/ Under conditions of total eclipse’’.

Onomatopoeia

We find an onomatopoeia in the line ‘’Whining and groaning with its heavy thought’’ in the poem ‘’The Dancer’s Reply’’.

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