A.E. Stallings: Poetry Literary Elements

A.E. Stallings: Poetry Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

Most of the poems are written from a third-person objective point of vie

Form and Meter

Iambic pentameter.

Metaphors and Similes

In the second stanza of the poem "Actaeon’’, the narrator compares the dogs sent to hunt an animal with the words someone may utter but regret he or she did it the next second. The comparison has the purpose of showing that the narrator was unable to stop the dogs from attacking the deer just as a man is unable to take his words back.

Alliteration and Assonance

We find alliteration in the line "Nothing is more permanent than the temporary.’’

Irony

In the poem entitled "Actaeon’’ the narrator presents how the dogs raised by the master in the poem was ironically killed by the dogs he raised since they were pups and became almost like his children.

Genre

Narrative and allegorical poems.

Setting

Narrative and allegorical poems.

Tone

Tragic, regretful, critic

Protagonist and Antagonist

In the poem "Actaeon’’ the protagonist is the man and the antagonists are the dogs that eventually kill him.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the poem "Another Lullaby for Insomniacs’’ is between the unnamed men and the woman who symbolizes sleep.

Climax

In the poem "Actaeon’’ the poem reaches its climax when the main character is killed by his dogs.

Foreshadowing

In the third stanza in the poem entitled "Actaeon’’ the violent nature of the three dogs is described. This foreshadows the way in which the main character will be eventually killed by the dogs.

Understatement

When the narrator claims a human is left on earth only for a couple of years in the poem entitled "A Greek Proverb’’ is an understatement because the rest of the poem talks about how humans live dozen of years, always claiming that to be their last.

Allusions

At the end of the poem entitled "Actaeon’’, it is alluded that the main character was either killed or injured by his own dogs.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The term "we’’ is used in the poem "After a Greek Proverb’’ in a general way to make reference to the whole society.

Personification

We find a personification in the line "Like angry words’’ in the poem entitled "Actaeon’’.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole: We find a hyperbole in the lines "Inexorable once on the track, / Like angry words you might have meant, /But do not mean, and can’t take back.’’

Onomatopoeia

We find onomatopoeia in the line "the music of their yelps’’ in the poem "Actaeon’’.

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