Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poem is written in the first person, and the speaker is a version of John Dryden himself.
Form and Meter
The poem is comprised of 25 lines of almost entirely heroic couplets, written in iambic pentameter with an AABBCC rhyme scheme.
Metaphors and Similes
The metaphor "Cast in the same poetic mould with mine" emphasizes the speaker's kinship with his subject.
The metaphor "Thy generous fruits, though gather'd ere their prime" links creative abundance to material and natural abundance, and suggests the impermanence of both.
The metaphor "Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound;" uses the conventional metaphorical meaning of these materials to suggest that Oldham's legacy is respected and beloved.
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliterative L sounds appear in "Farewell, too little and too lately known," while alliterative A's appear in "What could advancing age have added more?" and alliterative N's appear in "(what nature never gives the young)."
Irony
The line "The last set out the soonest did arrive" embodies a basic situational irony of the poem: that Oldham, though younger than the speaker, has reached the end of his life much sooner. Another, smaller irony concerns the components of good poetry. Dryden suggests that some aesthetic flaws may actually increase a poem's quality.
Genre
Elegy
Setting
This poem was written following John Oldham's death and takes place in eighteenth-century Britain
Tone
mournful, teasing, affectionate
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Oldham himself, while time and mortality are arguably antagonists.
Major Conflict
The poem's conflict is the death of the poet John Oldham.
Climax
The speaker's final "hail and farewell" to Oldham is climactic.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
Dryden's teasing of Oldham over his poetic abilities is muted and understated, with light barbs like "It might (what nature never gives the young)/Have taught the numbers of thy native tongue."
Allusions
The lines "Thus Nisus fell upon the slippery place, While his young friend perform'd and won the race" are an allusion to Virgil's Aeneid. Marcellus was a Roman general and poet.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The word "tongue" is a conventionalized metonymy in which the tongue stands in for language.
Personification
Age is personified as having "taught the numbers of thy native tongue."
Hyperbole
Descriptions of Dryden's similarity to Oldham, such as "And knaves and fools we both abhorr'd alike," hyperbolically describe their likeness.
Onomatopoeia
N/A
