Rhyme Scheme
Here is an excerpt from William Blake's "The Fly":
Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
ABCB rhyme scheme
Identify the meter in this stanza from Blake's "Earth's Answer":
(No set meter, identify # of stressed syllables per line)
“Earth rais'd up her head, (3) From the darkness dread & drear. (4) Her light fled, (2) Stony dread! (2) And her locks cover'd with grey despair. (4)
No set meter however, there is a pattern to the stanzas. The first lines in each stanza have three stressed syllables, the second and fifth lines with four stresses, and the third and fourth lines with two stresses.
Identify the literary device in "Introduction":
Earth rais'd up her head,
From the darkness dread & drear.
Her light fled:
Stony dread!
And her locks cover'd with grey despair.
The Earth in this poem is personified as a female figure who represents divine feminine energy. She is implied to be restricted and so the Bard calls upon her to order her to also fight to restore the world to bliss and innocence. Blake gives the Earth human-like qualities in order to make the poem more understandable to all.
Identify the literary device in "Nurse's Song":
(Hint: these are two things being placed closely that have contrasting effects)
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And whisp’rings are in the dale,
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.
Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Your spring and your day are wasted in play,
And your winter and night in disguise.
There is juxtaposition in the poem that compares the two sides of the poem. In the first stanza, the nurse describes the peace of the children playing, which is then placed directly before the second stanza that describes how the nurse truly feels about the children. She reveals that the kids are wasting their time trying to bask in this childhood innocence, and that they are going to suffer and be miserable anyways when they grow older, therefore there is no point in attempting to have a joyful childhood. Blake purposefully put these two stanzas one after the other in order to highlight their differences, showing the variation between the perspectives of what is seemed at the surface level and what is truly thought. In the first stanza, it seems to be a heartwarming moment where the nurse sees the children playing, but then in the second stanza, her true thoughts, which are much darker, come to light.
Here is an excerpt from William Blake's "The Angel":
I dreamt a dream! What can it mean? And that I was a maiden Queen Guarded by an Angel mild: Witless woe was ne’er beguiled!
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
AABB rhyme scheme
Identify the meter from Blake's "Holy Thursday":
(Hint: how many stressed syllables in each line?)
Is this a holy thing to see, In a rich and fruitful land
This poem is written in an accentual meter, meaning that there is no particular metrical foot but instead each line has the same number of stressed syllables. Here, each line has four stressed syllables.
Identify the literary device in "Earth's Answer":
Does spring hide its joy
When buds and blossoms grow?
Does the sower?
Sow by night?
Or the plowman in darkness plow?
There are rhetorical questions in stanza 4. The stanza begins by talking about the nature of spring, asking whether spring conceals its joy as flowers grow and the season begins. The next line continues, asking whether a sower can only sow at night, and if a plowman can only plow in the dark. The reason for these questions is not for them to be answered, but to show that it is undeniable that the answers to all those questions is no. Spring cannot hide happiness when flowers grow, and it is extremely counterintuitive for a sower to sow at night and a plowman to plow in darkness. With this, the poem implies that all of these actions are to happen in daylight, and that it is completely natural for them to occur. Overall, these questions call out and undermine the logic of repressing human nature, which are the characteristics of the Earth that led to her imprisonment.
Identify the literary device in "Holy Thursday":
And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill'd with thorns.
It is eternal winter there.
There is anaphora in the words "And their." elements in writing. In these lines, we see that the word “and” is repeated and the phrases are all in the present tense. The repetition of “and” emphasizes the speaker’s point that while England has an abundance of resources to provide for the children, their lives are without them. This relays how difficult the children’s lives are and amplifies their struggles. The speaker argues that the world should never produce starving or miserable children, which is evident by the lines “…For where-e’er the sun does shine, And where-e’er the rain does fall.” This means that children should be happy wherever the sun shines and rain falls, which is the entire world.
Here is an excerpt from Blake's "A Little Boy Lost":
‘Nought loves another as itself,
Nor venerates another so,
Nor is it possible to Thought
A greater than itself to know:
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
ABCB rhyme scheme
Identify the meter of Blake's "My Pretty Rose Tree" based on the first line:
A flower|was offer’d|to me
The meter of the poem is anapestic trimeter, meaning that each line has three metrical feet which follow a pattern of unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables. An example of this is the first line “A flower| was offered| to me.”
Identify the literary device from William Blake's "The Fly:"
For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
There is alliteration in the third stanza with the repetition of the consonant sound “d” in the words “dance” and “drink,” the sound “s” in the words “sing” and “some” and the sound “b” in the words “blind” and “brush.” This literary device gives the writing a lyrical and lulling effect. It also focuses the reader’s attention onto the words, and in the poem the reader fixates on the similarities between man and the fly, which is used to further argue the speaker’s belief that humans and flies, and all life, is all the same due to the brevity of life and unpredictable hand of death.
Identify the literary device in "Earth's Answer":
Break this heavy chain,
That does freeze my bones around
Selfish! _ vain!
Eternal _ bane!
That free Love with bondage bound.
There is an asyndeton in lines 23 and 24 “Selfish! vain! Eternal bane!” which excludes a joining conjunction. Here, Earth calls for the breaking of the chains that causes her great stress and misery to her existence. The omission of a joining conjunction makes the phrases more memorable to readers and emphasizes the urging of Earth for someone to free her from the shackles of the “watry prison.”
Here is an excerpt from Blake's "The School Boy":
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the sky-lark sings with me.
O! what sweet company.
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
ABABB rhyme scheme
Identify the meter of Blake's "A Little Boy Lost":
Nought loves/a-no/ther as/itself
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, with each line having four units of rhyming following an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern. Such can be seen in the first line “Nought loves|a-no|ther as|itself."
Identify the literary device in "Holy Thursday":
(Hint: comparing something to usury - interest at high rates)
Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reducd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?
There is a metaphor within the line “Fed with cold and usurous hand.” The definition of usury is the practice of lending out money at ridiculously high interest rates and ultimately making unethical loans that benefit the lender only, without regard for the borrower. In the moral context, it can be used to describe taking advantage of the misfortunes of others. In this poem, this word is used to showcase that the adults who run the charity schools, although feeding, housing, and educating them, take advantage of these children who have nowhere else to go. This can mean that in return for their “generosity,” the charity officials expect complete obedience from the children, or something else in return.
Identify the literary device in "The Little Vagabond":
Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold,
But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm;
Besides I can tell where I am use'd well,
Such usage in heaven will never do well.
The polyptoton in lines three and four with the use of the words “use’d” and “usage” clearly contrast the Church and ale-house. It implies that the Church does not treat anyone “well,” whereas the ale-house does, as the boy states there “I can tell where I am use’d well.” This conveys the speaker’s point that the way the Church treats its followers would not be accepted in Heaven, which is supposed to be a place of love, comfort, and warmth, the opposite of the Church which is cruel and oppressive.
Here are two separate stanzas from Blake's "Earth's Answer":
Earth rais'd up her head, From the darkness dread & drear.
Her light fled: Stony dread!
And her locks cover'd with grey despair.
Selfish father of men Cruel, jealous, selfish fear
Can delight Chain'd in night d
The virgins of youth and morning bear.
What are the rhyme schemes of these two stanzas?
ABAAB CBDDB
Identify the meter from Blake's "Nurse's Song":
When the voi-|ces of chil-|dren are heard|on the green
And whis-|p’rings are in|the dale,
The days|of my youth|rise fresh|in my mind,|
My face|turns green |and pale.
This poem mainly uses anapests and iambs that alternate between tetrameter and trimeter. Anapests are three-syllable feet that follow a pattern of unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables while iambs have two-syllable feet that follow a pattern of unstressed-stressed syllables. The first and third lines of each stanza are in tetrameter while the second and fourth lines are written in trimeter. This can be seen in the first stanza “When voi-/ces of chil-/dren are heard/ on the green,
And whis-/perings are in/ the dale,
The days/ of my youth/ rise fresh/ in my mind,/
My face/ turns green/ and pale.”
Identify the literary device in "A Little Girl Lost":
(Hint: what are the bolded words depicting to the reader?)
Seven summers old
Lovely Lyca told;
She had wander’d long
Hearing wild birds’ song.
Sleeping Lyca lay
While the beasts of prey,
Come from caverns deep,
View’d the maid asleep.
There is imagery in the poem as the image of Lyca can be generated in the audience’s head through the phrase “Lovely Lyca.” This phrase allows the reader to picture a young, sweet girl wandering throughout many places, attempting to find somewhere to rest. The imagery can also generate pity for Lyca and her situation as she is so young and without her parents. When Lyca is in the jungle, the phrase “beasts of prey” allows the reader to imagine the lion, lioness, and other dangerous animals such as the tigers and leopards, which evoke tensions and fear for Lyca by the readers. The purpose of this imagery is to deepen the readers’ senses and add to the world that is created by the poem. In turn, this will help the reader to better understand the events occurring in the poem.
Identify the literary device in "Earth's Answer":
(Hint: when you read this, do you pause at all?)
Selfish father of men
Cruel jealous selfish fear
Can delight
Chain'd in night
The virgins of youth and morning bear.
Enjambment appears in stanza 3, lines 6-8. The sentence that begins in line 6 continues without a pause or punctuation. This literary device creates drama as the readers are pulled beyond a single line to continue a sentence. This also allows Blake to set the pace of the poem, and ultimately change how it is read by the audience. In this case, the reader is pulled smoothly and swiftly into the next line, and this sets up and emphasizes the description of the “Father of ancient men” who imprisoned Earth, who is characterized negatively in the next stanza.