Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Behn's speakers are always women, and they narrate from the female perspective. Some of her poems have a speaker that represents Behn herself.
Form and Meter
Behn uses both the couplet and the ballad stanza. Her poems are generally pastoral.
Metaphors and Similes
In The Disappointment Lysander treats Cloris "without respect" which is a metaphor for forcing himself upon her against her wishes.
Alliteration and Assonance
"The Conqueror's Care" is an example of alliteration, taken from the poem Angellica's Lament.
Irony
The Reflection is a largely ironic poem, because it deals with the way in which men tend to pursue a woman, and do so obsessively, until the woman in question succumbs to their advances, gives herself to him, and falls hopelessly in love - at which point the man loses attraction for her rapidly. Her love grows whilst his dies.
Genre
Love Poetry; Lesbian Poetry; Restoration Poetry
Setting
The settings vary; many of the poems based on events within Behn's social circle occur the seventeen hundreds in the Canterbury area where she lives. Others are drawn from literature and history.
Tone
Most of the poems are romantic in tone. However some can also be melancholy, after a failed love, or even threatening. The tone of the poems runs the gamut of human emotions that come into play whenever love is involved.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The women are the protagonists, men the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The most obvious conflict is in The Disappointment, which deals with a conflict between Lysander and Cloris. Lysander becomes angry when Cloris, whom he is in a romantic relationship with, refuses to have sex with him. The conflict becomes a physical altercation which ends in Cloris' hasty escape and Lysander's enraged torrent of anger directed at her.
Climax
Cloris escapes Lysander's clutches and gets away from him as he is trying to rape her. The only thing that prevents this rape is Lysander himself because he turns out to be impotent.
Foreshadowing
Cloris' rejection of Lysander foreshadows his extreme anger at being spurned.
Understatement
Lysander is said to be angry about Cloris rejecting him When the poem interpreted to show him as a man embarrassed by his impotence being revealed, this is an understatement, because his level of rage far surpasses embarrassment and anger.
Allusions
Behn often alludes to events that are happening at the time of her writing her poems. These can be events that are happening in the country at the time, or they can also be events and conversations that have taken place in her life within her social circle.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The Cabal is Behn's own phrase to describe her closely knit circle of friends.
Personification
Cupid's arrows are personified and given the power to chose the person whose heart they pierce.
Hyperbole
Behn writes several poems that deal with the heartbreak that comes with unrequited, or rejected love; however, in The Reflection, the woman in question feels that since her love has been rejected she has no option other than to die. This can be seen as a hyperbolic reaction on her part.
Onomatopoeia
No specific examples
