Poetry Analisis 3: She Walks in Beauty

She Walks in Beauty 

by Elena Toledo, USA

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She walks in beauty, eyes soft,

Innocent; silky breast that captures

men’s heart, her alarming whiteness,

making angels turn dark.

In times of sorrow, she's the light; if she

cries, her tears breakdown into drops of

divine moist. Wrapped in her skin, never

has a sin, her lips turn to fear in

the eyes of evil. Her sacred presence makes earth

heavenly; her beauty blinds the power of vision,

her virtuous is an envious, making instinct

jealousy take over. She walks in beauty.

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          About

"She Walks in Beauty" is about how beauty is not always innocent. It may seem so at first glance, but go a little deeper and it becomes much more twisted in appearance.

          Theme

Like the last poem, the theme of the poem is unclear. However, "Beauty is deadly" would be my interpretation. The woman goes around wooing men, but then their jelousy takes over and blinds them.

          Structure

This poem is a freeverse, consisting of three stanzas of quatrains. There is no rhyme patter, or any kind of rhyme for that matter, at all.

          Poetic Devices

The most notable poetic device used in this poem is allusion. All of them are biblical allusions found in the following: line 4, line 7, line 8, and line 9. From these, one could guess that the woman in the poem could be a demon or something along those lines. It also makes use of enjambment in line 8 and 9, as well as most of the other lines.

Poem analysis 2: Ode to the West Wind

Ode to the West Wind 

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1795-1825)

First Movement

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-striken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

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        About

This poem is mostly straightforward, speaking of how the wind blows and causes havoc in it's wake.

        Theme

There insn't much of a theme for a descriptive poem like this. If there were it would be along the lines of: "Death comes in the wind" as the poem describes clearly the darkness that the wind brings.

        Structure

This sonnet follows the Terza Rima, a style created by the poet Dante and is composed of four stanzas of three lines, then one stanza of two. Teza means three, and Rima is rhyme. So, it follows exactly what is says on the tin. The rhyme scheme goes aba cdc efe ghg ii , as if alternating. 

        Poetic Devices 

This sonnet is chock full of poetic devices. For example; the first line, "O wild west wind" is alliteration. It also uses Personification throughout the poem, describing the winds as if it were a person who was bringing with her darkness and death. There is also imagery, like in line four, that helps bring a picture of what would be a otherwise colourless picture. The final line has two (or just one, depending on your opinion) examples of assonance: Destroyer and Preserver as well as hear and hear. Finally, this poem rhymes: aba cdc efe ghg ii as previously stated.

Poem analysis 1: Ballad of the Cool Fountain

Ballad of the Cool Fountain 

Anonymous Spanish poetess (15th century)

Fountain, coolest fountain,

Cool fountain of love,

Where all the sweet birds come

For comforting–but one,

A widow turtledove,

Sadly sorrowing.

At once the nightingale,

That wicked bird, came by,

And spoke these honied words:

"My lady, if you will,

I shall be your slave."

"You are my enemy:

Begone, you are not true!

Green boughs no longer rest me,

Nor any budding grove.

Clear springs, where there are such,

Turn muddy at my touch.

I want no spouse to love

Nor any children either.

I forego that pleasure

And their comfort too.

No, leave me; you are false

And wicked–vile, untrue!

I’ll never be your mistress!

I’ll never marry you!"

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              About

    The "Ballad of the cool fountain" is almost a metaphor in itself, comparing love to a fountain's water. What was once pure and clean became murky to match the false love of the man and the lady's unwilling heart. 

However, it is also unsure whether the man was a fraud, or just the woman's denial that is speaking.

              Theme

This poem's theme is how love seems pure and peaceful at until it comes time to marry, especially if it is someone you don't want.

However, as this poem is from the fifteenth century, the theme is likely much different considering the traditions of marriage at the time. It is probably more rational to think that this woman is being forced into a money based marriage that she does not want.

              Structure

It was stated in the page where this ballad was found that it was a variant of a classic ballad that the commoners of the time wrote. This causes it to be much easier to write but simultaneously turns it into more of a freeverse in terms of structure.

             Poetic devices

As stated earlier, the poem is basically a metaphor in it self, comparing love to the water in a fountain. Otherwise, this poem also uses a couple of birds as symbols. The Nightingale (line 7) represents her husband, who uses falsely sweet words to try and woo her. The turtledove (line 5), on the other hand, represents her loneliness and want for somebody she could truly love. These birds are also examples of personification, because birds cant talk (in the conventional sense, at least).