A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London Literary Elements

First-person narrator who is unidentified, but typically considered to be the persona expressing the perspective of the poet.

This is a lyric poem written in accentual meter which is defined only by the number of syllables that are stress rather the total number of syllables.

"All humbling darkness" is a metaphor for death.

The poem opens with three different uses of alliteration: "mankind making" and "Bird beast" and flower fathering."

The title itself winds up being ironic as the poem is a public mourning of the child's death.

Elegy

London, England. Sometime during the German blitz of England at the height of World War II.

Somber, serious and occasionally ironic with an underlying sense of anger.

Protagonist: Young girl. Antagonist: death.

The conflict is between the speaker's refusal to mourn the girl's death and his inability to carry out that refusal.

The burial of the girl.

n/a

"The majesty and burning of the child's death" understates the tragedy of the girl's death by trying to transform it into an act to be honored.

"Zion of the water bead / And the synagogue of the ear of corn" are allusions to biblical scripture.

Water bead" is a synecdoche for water in general while "ear of corn" services the same purpose for land.

"the dark veins of her mother" is a personification referencing Mother Nature, not the young girl's actual mother.

Ironically, "The majesty and burning of the child's death" also acts as hyperbole. While it understates the tragedy of the girl's death, it also hyperbolically overstates the dignity and honor of her demise.

n/a