Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Unspecified; could be any observer of such a scene
Form and Meter
No discernible meter or rhyme scheme. 2 stanzas: 10 lines and 9 lines.
Metaphors and Similes
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliteration:
"ridge to ridge," "flower to flower," "root to root," "shadow seeks shadow": word repetition
Irony
Genre
Imagist poetry, Modernist poetry
Setting
Likely a hilltop with flowers
Tone
Quiet, stirring
Protagonist and Antagonist
Major Conflict
Climax
The final line, when complete darkness falls, and vision and clarity slip away.
Foreshadowing
Understatement
Allusions
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Personification
but shadows dart
from the cornel-roots—
black creeps from root to root,
each leaf
cuts another leaf on the grass,
shadow seeks shadow,
In the above lines, both the shadows and the leaves are personified through diction that suggests some kind of sentience or purpose (note the verbs "creeps," "cuts," and "seeks"). This personification further emphasizes the possible allegory that the poem invites between the actual process of nightfall and the loss of clarity, lightness, or lucidity in the human experience.
