George Meredith: Poems Literary Elements

George Meredith: Poems Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The poem "Lucifer in Starlight" is told from the perspective of a third person subjective narrator.

Form and Meter

The poems are written in an iambic pentameter.

Metaphors and Similes

In the poem entitled "Love in the Valley" the narrator compares the woman he loves with a squirrel and with a swallow. The comparison is made when the narrator takes the woman in his arms and kisses her, and then wonders how the woman will react. The comparison with the two small and easily frighten animals has the purpose of transmitting the idea that the narrator expected the woman he loved to act scared and run away from him.

Alliteration and Assonance

We find alliteration in the lines "Overhead, overhead/Rushes life in a race,/ As the clouds the clouds chase" in the poem "Dirge in Woods".

Irony

An ironic element is presented in the poem "Love in the Valley" where the narrator, despite admitting that the woman he loves is extremely inconsistent when it comes to her affections and feelings and even heartless at times, still loves the woman mentioned in the poem and wants to be as close to her as possible.

Genre

The poem "Lucifer in Starlight" is a narrative poem.

Setting

The action of the poem "Love in the Valley" is set under a tree, near a body of water, the place where the narrator chooses to interact with the woman he loves. The time when the action takes place remains unmentioned.

Tone

The tone in the poem "Dirge in Woods" is a depressing and even violent at times.

Protagonist and Antagonist

In the poem "Lucifer in Starlight" the protagonist is Lucifer and it is implied that the antagonist is the force which punished him.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the poem "Dirge in Woods" is between life and death and between the insecure nature of human life and the apparent long life of the nature surrounding us.

Climax

The poem "Lucifer in Starlight" reaches its climax when Lucifer breaks free from Hell and ends up among the stars once more.

Foreshadowing

The title of the poem "Dirge in Forest" foreshadows the frequent mentioning of death as the term "dirge’’ is used to refer to a part in a funeral rite where the living lament the passing of their loved one

Understatement

In the beginning of the poem "Love in the Valley", the narrator boasts that the woman he loves is the most wonderful and loving person one could have the fortune to meet. This however is an understatement as towards the poem the narrator calls the woman heartless and cruel.

Allusions

In the poem entitled "Dirge in Woods" the narrator highlights the idea that a person can die at any moment, and that life in general is extremely unstable. Time is compared in this poem with a tree, more exactly with a pine, to show how time is not affected by the changing seasons or rather the problems a person may experience in their everyday life. Individual people on the other hand are the fruits which grow on trees, which last only for a short period of time and then they fall down and decay. The allusion made here is that human life is extremely unstable and fragile in comparison with the rest of the world which continues to live on. It is also alluded that no matter how hard we try, there is nothing we can do to stop the passing of time and the effects it has on us.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

We find personification in the line "lowing, and with crimson a long cloud swells" in the poem "Love in the Valley".

Hyperbole

We find hyperbole in the poem "Lucifer in Starlight" in the lines "at the stars,/Which are the brain of heaven".

Onomatopoeia

We find onomatopoeia in the line "they are quiet, as under the sea" in the poem "Dirge in Woods".

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