Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The narrator is often first-person, who tells us about their emotions or experiences.
Form and Meter
In "We Are the Music Makers," O'Shaughnessy alternates lines of seven and eight syllables, and uses an aabbcdcd rhyme scheme.
Metaphors and Similes
O'Shaughnessy uses the metaphor of a "country of Sorrow," in order to represent the immersion of certain emotional states.
Alliteration and Assonance
In the first lines of "We Are the Music Makers," O'Shaughnessy uses alliteration:
"We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams."
Irony
In "We Are the Music Makers," O'Shaughnessy suggests that artists have a lot to offer, shining a light on the irony of assertions that the arts aren't as "valuable" as other institutions.
Genre
Poetry
Setting
"The Fountain of Tears" is set in country of Sorrow.
Tone
O'Shaughnessy's poetry is emotive and inspirational in tone.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of "The Fountain of Tears," is an unhappy person who enters the "country of Sorrow," and then goes onto describe this emotion.
Major Conflict
In "We Are the Music Makers," the major conflict is the speaker's attempt to celebrate "music makers," and what they bring to the room.
Climax
"The Fountain of Tears" culminates in the "floods and the tears" creating a sound of thunder.
Foreshadowing
In "The Fountain Of Tears," the subject of sorrow and sadness is foreshadowed at the very beginning of the poem, where he writes that:
"You shall come with a heart that is bursting
For trouble and toiling and thirsting."
Understatement
O'Shaughnessy suggests that the role of artists are underestimated and undervalued in society.
Allusions
O'Shaughnessy refers to "music makers," who are the artists and visionaries of the world.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
O'Shaughnessy suggests that music can "trample an empire down."
Hyperbole
The speaker suggests that the fountain of tears renders visitors "with no past or morrow."
Onomatopoeia
N/A
