Lead, Kindly Light

90. The Pillar of the Cloud

{156}
LEAD, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene—one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou

Shouldst lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

{157}
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

At Sea.
June 16, 1833.
"Lead, Kindly Light, Amid the encircling gloom" is a hymn with words written in 1833 by
Saint John Henry Newman as a poem titled "the Pillar of the Cloud", which was first published in
the British Magazine in 1834, and republished in Lyra Apostolica in 1836.[1]

It is usually sung to the tune Sandon by Charles H. Purday,[2] Lux Benigna composed by John
Bacchus Dykes in 1865. It was however originally published by Oxford University Press in the
university city to the hymn tune Alberta by William H. Harris; or alternatively as a choral anthem
by Sir John Stainer (1886).[3] Arthur Sullivan also did a setting, Lux in Tenebris,[4] which Ian
Bradley praises as a "much more sensitive and honest setting of Newman's ambiguity and
expressions of doubt" than Dykes's "steady, reassuring" rhythms.[5]

As a young priest, Newman became sick while in Italy and was unable to travel for almost three
weeks. In his own words:

Before starting from my inn, I sat down on my bed and began to sob bitterly. My servant, who
had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer, "I have a work to do in
England." I was aching to get home, yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three
weeks. I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend
any services. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. We were becalmed for
whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio, and it was there that I wrote the lines, Lead, Kindly Light,
which have since become so well known.

Notable occasions relating to hymn

Portrait plaque of U.S. president William McKinley, labelled "It

is God's Way – Lead, Kindly Light", c. 1901

The largest mining disaster in the Durham Coalfield in England was at West Stanley Colliery,
known locally as "The Burns Pit", when 168 men and boys lost their lives as the result of two
underground explosions at 3:45pm on Tuesday 16 February 1909. In the Towneley Seam 63 lay
dead, in the Tilley Seam 18 lay dead, in the Busty Seam 33 lay dead and in the Brockwell Seam
48 lay dead. But incredibly, there were still men alive underground. A group of 34 men and boys
in the Tilley Seam had found a pocket of clean air. They were led by Deputy Mark Henderson. A
few of them panicked and left the group, they died instantly after inhaling the poison gas. The
remainder sat in almost total darkness, when one of them began humming the Hymn "Lead
Kindly Light". In no time at all, the rest of the miners joined in with the words, "Lead kindly light
amidst the encircling gloom, lead thou me on, The night is dark, and I am far from home". This
was probably sung to the tune "Sandon" by C. H. Purday, popular with miners in the Durham
coalfield. Before the hymn ended, young Jimmy Gardner died of injuries. These 26 men were
rescued after 14 hours, four others were later rescued.

"Lead, Kindly Light" was sung by Betsie ten Boom, sister of Corrie ten Boom, and other women
as they were led by the S.S. Guards to the Ravensbrück concentration camp during the
Holocaust.[6]

"Lead, Kindly Light" was sung by a soloist, Marion Wright, on the RMS Titanic during a
hymn-singing gathering led by the Rev. Ernest C. Carter, shortly before the ocean liner struck an
iceberg on April 14, 1912.[7] The hymn was also sung aboard one of the Titanic's lifeboats when
the rescue ship Carpathia was sighted the following morning. It was suggested by one of the
occupants, Noëlle, Countess of Rothes.[8]

On one occasion in February 1915, "Lead, Kindly Light" was sung by a group of British troops to
the accompaniment of nearby artillery fire on the Western Front during the First World War at
services held before going into the trenches the following day.[9]

"Lead, Kindly Light" is the motto for the Cambridge High School, Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates; Our Own English High School, United Arab Emirates; The Little Flower Higher
Secondary School, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India; Soundararaja Vidyalaya, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu,
India; Mangalam College of Engineering, Ettumanoor, Kerala, India; St. Thomas Public School,
Pune, Maharashtra, India;[10] Sri Kumaran Children's Home, Bangalore, Karnataka, India and for
De Paul School, Kuravilangad, Kerala (Malayalam translation).

The hymn is referred to in Chapter LVI titled 'Beauty in Loneliness – After All' from Thomas
Hardy's novel Far From The Madding Crowd.[11]

The hymn was also a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi and is mentioned at the Gandhi Museum in
Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Verses
Edward Henry Bickersteth (later Bishop of Exeter) added a fourth 'pirate verse' for the poem's
republication in the Hymnal Companion in 1870.[12] Newman was not pleased, writing to the
publishers: "It is not that the verse is not both in sentiment and language graceful and good, but
I think you will at once see how unwilling an author must be to subject himself to the
inconvenience of that being ascribed to him which is not his own."[12] This verse is not commonly
now included as part of the hymn.
 Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou

Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still

Will lead me on.
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path,

Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith,
Home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.

This poem, formally titled “the Pillar of the Cloud,” constitutes a heartfelt prayer to the Holy Spirit
imploring light at his time of sadness, while pointing to a coming struggle.

It has been set to several tunes and is found in many hymnals; as a hymn, it has been sung
around the world and in many notable occasions, including aboard the Titanic. The regular
meter, or beat of this poem, which makes it well suited to hymnody, also gives the poem a
reassuring rhythm. This reassurance is a good example of “sound echoing sense,” which means
not only do the words themselves give reassurance, but the very sound of the words in their
verses, the cadence, add to the soothing nature of the poem.

This poem’s success and popularity as a hymn also results from the meaning of the poem. It
can be understood on a literal level, the longing for one’s earthly home, and as an allegory of a
soul yearning for heaven — the archetypical longing for “a homecoming.” Lastly, it can be read
as expressing Newman’s doubt in his secular age, and his seeking for firm direction in his faith.
As a young Anglican clergyman, Newman was traveling in the Mediterranean with friends and
became very ill, to the point of death. During his illness and slow recovery, he had the strong
conviction that God had spared him for something important which would be revealed to him.
He was homesick but above all was calling God to guide him in the mission entrusted to him, a
mission then only vaguely revealed:

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,

Lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home —

Lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene, — one step enough for me.

In the first stanza, Newman calls on the Kindly light, the Holy Spirit – to rescue him from his
triple gloom … of homesickness, of apprehension in the face of his mission in the Anglican
church, and of his desire to reach his true home, heaven. He expresses his unquestioning
dependence on God, to whom he gives his “feet” – his very path forward … he follows without
question.

I was not ever thus, nor pray’d that Thou

Should’st lead me on.

I loved to choose and see my path; but now

Lead Thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

In this second stanza, Newman recalls with a sadness and remorse times from his past, when
he had been proud and willful. While lying on his sickbed, Newman had much time to think
about his earlier ways, and with the true possibility of death in his mind, it is small wonder that
he’d be given to sorrow over past sins.

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still

Will lead me on,

O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till

The night is gone;

And with the morn those angel faces smile

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

In this final, glorious and triumphant last stanza, we see Newman’s faith and hope vanquish the
gloom. He throws his cares to Christ, remembering that ever has he been blest. And though he
knows there might still be rough spots in the path ahead, crags and torrents … nevertheless, the
night is gone. And the heart’s thrill of hope in the reality of the heavenly homecoming, at once
gives meaning to all the homecomings – and the angel smiles serve to represent as well, both
earthly and heavenly consolation – which Newman recalls with renewed happiness, and though
he lost sight for a time, his eyes are again, surely and firmly, gazing upward.

Within a week of his return to England together with John Keble and a few other friends he was
led by God’s light to begin the Oxford Movement, a renewal movement in the Anglican Church.
God led him through one difficulty after another until at last he was led to the Roman Catholic
Church.

● Rhyme scheme: aBaBcc dbdBee fbfbff

● Stanza lengths (in strings): 6,6,6,
● Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
● Сlosest rhyme: rima
● Сlosest stanza type: tercets
● Guessed form: unknown form
● Metre: 110101001001 1111 0101111101 1111 1111111101 0101110111 1111011111 1111
1101111111 1111 1101011101 1110010110 11110111101 0111 101111011101 0101
1001110101 1111111101
● Amount of stanzas: 3
● Average number of symbols per stanza: 214
● Average number of words per stanza: 44
● Amount of lines: 18
● Average number of symbols per line: 35 (medium-length strings)
● Average number of words per line: 7
● Mood of the speaker:
The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.
● The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; lead is repeated.
The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word
lead is repeated.
The Splendor Falls
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1809 –1892
The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,

And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,
Blow, bugles; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,

They faint on hill or field or river;
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

● Rhyme scheme: XaXaBB cbcbbB XdXdBb

● Stanza lengths (in strings): 6,6,6,
● Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
● Сlosest rhyme: no rhyme
● Сlosest stanza type: tercets
● Guessed form: unknown form
● Metre: 01011101 110101010 01110101 1011001010 11011011010 1101010101010
11111111 110101010 11110111 010101010 11110101010 1101010101010 11110111
111111110 11010101 110101010 11011011010 1101010101010
● Amount of stanzas: 3
● Average number of symbols per stanza: 242
● Average number of words per stanza: 42
● Amount of lines: 18
● Average number of symbols per line: 40 (medium-length strings)
● Average number of words per line: 7
 ● Mood of the speaker:
The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.
● The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; dying, blow are
repeated.
The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same word
blow is repeated.
The author used the same word o at the beginnings of some neighboring stanzas. The
figure of speech is a kind of anaphora.
The poet repeated the same word dying at the end of some neighboring stanzas. The
poetic device is a kind of epiphora.

‘The Splendour Falls’ is part of a much longer narrative, blank verse poem known as ‘The
Princess’. This poem tells the story of a princess who swears off the world of men and family
and founds a women’s university. This particular excerpt is one of several that is usually studied
from this piece. ‘The Splendour Falls’ was not added to the poem until the third edition was
published in 1850. Tennyson wrote to a friend after the poem’s initial publication saying that he
“hate[d]” the entire thing

Summary of The Splendour Falls

‘The Splendour Falls’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson is a musical poem that depicts a beautiful
landscape, the sound of a bugle, and contains a spiritual/religious undertone.

In the first lines of this poem, the speaker describes the setting, the way the light moves off the
landscape. He then brings in the first iteration of the bugle horn. It blows and echoes wildly
around the valley. This is something that occurs at the end of the following two stanzas as well.
The speaker talks directly to the bugle asking it to continue blowing while also instructing the
listener to pay attention and hear it. In the second stanza, the scene is expanded and related to
the mysterious world of Elfland. The poem concludes with an allusion to the immortality, or lack
thereof, of the human soul.

Structure of The Splendour Falls

‘The Splendour Falls’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson is a three-stanza excerpt from the longer
narrative poem, ‘The Princess’. This expert is song-like, as is much of the poem. It is sometimes
known as the “Bugle Song” because of this feature and repetition of the blowing bugles in each
stanza.

The lines of this excerpt follow a consistent rhyme scheme of ABCBDD with examples of
internal rhyme within specific lines. It can be seen with “falls” and “walls” in line one and
“shakes” and “lakes” in line three of the first stanza.
Literary Devices in The Splendour Falls
Tennyson makes use of several literary devices in ‘The Splendour Falls’. These include
apostrophes, alliteration, and enjambment. The first of these, apostrophe, is an arrangement of
words addressing someone, something, or a creature, that does not exist, or is not present, in
the poem’s immediate setting. The exclamation, “Oh,” is often used at the beginning of the
phrase. The person is spoken to as though they can hear and understand the speaker’s words.
In this case, the speaker asks the bugle to continue blowing.

Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and
begin with the same sound. For example, “long light” and “lakes” are in line three of the first
stanza as well as the repetition of “dying” at the end of each stanza. Another important
technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its
natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly.
One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. For instance,
the transition between lines three and four of the second stanza.

Analysis of The Splendour Falls

Stanza One

The splendour falls on castle walls

And snowy summits old in story;

The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,

Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

In the first lines of ‘The Splendour Falls,’ the speaker begins by making use of the line that this
poem later came to be known by. It describes the “splendour” of the scene. This is likely a
reference to the sunlight and how it is cast down along the “castle walls”. All around are
“summits” or mountains that are covered in snow. The scene is a beautiful one, suitable for the
larger context of the story. The “light” from the first line also touches the lakes. It “shakes,”
perhaps due to the movement of the water or the various objects, trees, etc, that it touches on
the way down. This creates the second of two perfect internal rhymes.
There is also a waterfall or a “cataract” to be seen. It is “wild” and it “leaps in glory”. This is a
good example of personification. The speaker depicts it as though it is a powerful creature of
some kind that chooses to leap in a particular way.

This leads the reader into the refrain that ends each of the stanzas, although with a few
variations. The speaker describes a “bugle,” a kind of horn, that blows and then fades off into
the distance. It sets the “wild echoes flying”. The sound moves around in between these
mountains, the sunlight, and the lake. The word “dying,” and its repetition three times at the end
of each line mimics the effects of the echo.

Stanza Two

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,

And thinner, clearer, farther going!

O, sweet and far from cliff and scar

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!

Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,

Blow, bugles; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker tries to draw the reader’s attention to the notes
of the bugle horn. He uses the phrase “O, hark, O hear” to catch the reader’s ear and direct
them to the “thin and clear” noise of the bugle. It’s echoing off the mountains in a magical and
seemingly mysterious way. This brings to mind “Elfland,” the home of the elves. A place that is
of our world but not. It comes up in various different mythologies and is often considered a kind
of magical alternate reality to our own. Perhaps, the speaker is interpreting the valley at this
moment to be some kind of borderland or entryway into this other world.

The refrain is brought back up again at the end of the stanza. The poet uses a technique known
as apostrophe. He addresses the bugle directly, an inanimate object that can’t hear or respond
to him, and tells it to continue blowing. He wants to hear the sound echo around the “purple
glens”. The sunlight which was casting down on the mountains previously is now causing the
sky to change into various populations, sunset colors. The repetition of the word dying is quite
haunting here. In combination with the sunset, it’s a possible reference to decline and death,
rather than just the bugle’s echo silencing.

Stanza Three

O love, they die in yon rich sky,

 They faint on hill or field or river;

Our echoes roll from soul to soul,

And grow forever and forever.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,

And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

In the third stanza of ‘The Splendour Falls,’ the speaker addresses a specific person. He tells
his “love“ that “they die“ in the distant sky. The sky is “rich“ with beauty and substance. It is not
entirely clear who he is speaking to, what is dying, or what he really sees in the sky. It is likely
that he still speaking about the echoing of the bugles, but also referring to something more
important such as the death and disappearance of people. This could be interpreted through the
use of words like “faint“.

In the final lines, the speaker refers to “our echoes.” This is very likely a metaphor for the bits of
human presence, soul, or impact that a human being might leave behind. It echoes through life
and through the wider world beyond one’s mortal years. These echoes “grow forever and
forever“ and roll from “ soul to soul“. There is a spiritual message in these lines that is connected
back to the bugle and its echoing sound.

Introduction to the Poet:

Alfred Tennyson was born in 1809 at Somersby in Lincolnshire as the son of a clergyman. After
schooling at Louth, he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge. Here, he won the Chancellor’s
Medal for a poem on Timbuctoo. At the age twelve, he wrote an epic poem of 6000 lines and
wrote a drama of blank verse at the age of fourteen. Leaving Cambridge without a degree, he
lived with his parents for the next 20 years. Living in peace and serenity, he wrote much poetry;
all these while his fame was making headway. In 1845, he received a government pension.
Appointed as Poet Laureate (1850) in succession to Wordsworth, he married and moved to Isle
of Wight.
In his later years, he gained increasing fame, appreciation and applause; and was regarded as
the greatest poet of the era.
He died at 1892, at Aldworth, in Surrey and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

The Poem:

The poem is about a bugle music that the poet hears when he is on the top of a valley watching
the setting sun. The valley is a spiritual and magical one made up of beauty and the song he
hears is of the elves. The magical charm of the poem is what makes it so astonishing for us.
This is a part of ‘The Princess’ that deals with women’s education.
This poem also deals with the echo that a person has after his death, precisely the memories
left by. However, the poem’s beautiful words mingled with the reverie of the poet is bound to
influence the reader, leaving an essence in one’s mind.
Setting of The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

The poem is set on an isolated valley where the speaker watches the sunset as a purple tone
lingers in the sky. The sunlight falls on the castle and snowy old mountains, the light enters
through leaves and falls on the lake while the waterfall makes a loud sound. The sound of bugle
is heard and echoes from cliff to cliff and through the spaces and cracks and slowly dies out.
The poet imagines them to be coming from Elf land, where the elves lives. The elves and fairies
were believed to be objects that existed beyond the material world, in a parallel universe. The
poet thinks that he is on a magic valley. From here, we dive into the mind of the poet, where the
inner setting is prominent.
From the old fairy tells, the speaker’s imaginations stays the setting for the rest of the poem.

Style of The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

Each stanza has the same rhyme scheme, just as each line has the same meter, or rhythm:
A/A, B, C/C, B, D,D.
Well, A/A and C/C mark the internal rhymes that appear in the first and third lines of each
stanza.
The poem is written in iambic trimeter.

Poetic devices in The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

Symbolism:
‘Echo’ is a symbolism of the impact of our lives after our death.
Apostrophe:
Calling the bugle to blow, he calls to a non-living thing and thus is an apostrophe.
Hyperbole:
Echoes growing forever and forever is a hyperbole. Echoes can never grow forever but fades
away but Tennyson personifies it.
Personification:
The personification of splendor, lights and echoes are evident as they are given human
attributes. The valleys replying is yet another personification.
Assonance:
Presence of assonance is evident in the first and third stanza. Splendor falls on castle walls
creates an inner rhyming and is thus an example of assonance.

Summary of The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

The poem is written on the theme of imagination and the echoes we leave when we die. It starts
with the poet being at outdoor and looking across a valley and castle where the sunlight falls on
the castle walls and the snowy mountains which are old and many stories are written regarding
them. Light enters into the lake and a ferocious waterfall is makes a loud noise. A loud bugle
song is heard across the valley, echoing until slowly they fade away and die.
The poet goes on to ask us to hear the bugle horns carefully, as they rise to a high pitch
becoming thin and more distinct. He says that the horns that he hears are from Elf land, a place
where elves like creatures reside. He believes that the valley is magical and there is a very thin
line between the real world and a parallel universe, a world of elves and fairies, here. He goes
on to say that with the bugle songs comes from the cracks of the mountains and the
atmosphere replies to the songs with a purple tint on the sky reflected on the valley as the
sunset dawns closer. He repeats to say the line “Blow, bugles; answer, echoes, dying, dying,
dying.”
The sounds slowly fade away and he becomes philosophical. The echoes that had been fading
away makes him prude over the echoes that one leaves after death, the memories, the
achievements and so on which are, unlike the fading echoes, permanent. At last, he ends the
poem by asking the bugles to blow to hear the notes. The bugles echoes again and finally fades
away.

Central Idea of The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

The central idea of the poem deals with the poet’s imagination about the echoes after life as he
gets intimately spellbound with the beauty of nature. The poet is alone in the mountains, looking
across the valley at sunset and describing the scene which reminds the speaker of fairy tales, of
the past, of ancient history and mythology, and eventually of our lives’ echo after death. One can
be immortal with the help of the echoes after death, which includes our deeds, achievements,
and the impact that we have on others during our lifetime.

Critical Analysis of The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

The poem is one of vivid imagery, lyrical allusion consisting of wide range of thought processes
ranging from the parallel world with the existence of elves to the memories and echoes that we
leave when we die. The poem is made up of ideas and with the use of poetic devices; it is made
more appealing to the reader.
The word ‘splendor’ falling is somewhere the whole sense of the poem is brought forward.
Thus, the title is unusual and prepares us for the unsettled tone and the unusual and magical
valley. The philosophical questions asked and the rhetorical drama is yet another beautiful
feature of this poem.

Tone of The Splendor Falls On Castle Walls:

Tone of the poem is one of surprise and pleasure at the awe-striking beauty of the endless
abyss of beautiful nature. The pacifying serene beauty of the valley combined with isolation
brings wonderful charms.
The magical element of bugle song and horns coming from Elf land also brings a tone of awe to
the poem. The magnificent valley reflecting the purple tinge of dusk, the waterfall being wild and
wonderful brings a beautiful sense and enhances the poem’s tone.
The end brings a melancholic mood as he talks about death with the echoes that we live during
life.

Conclusion:
“The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls” is a good example of what Tennyson was up to during
his career. It’s a song-like poem in which a speaker hears a bugle echo around a beautiful
valley. The beautiful imagery, lyrical scheme, splendor of diction make this poem supreme in the
Victorian era.
Ode to a Nightingale
John Keats
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ was written in 1819, and it is the longest one, with 8 stanzas of 10 lines
each and is one of six famous odes John Keats wrote.

Key Poem Information

Central Message: Beauty and joy can provide a temporary escape from the pain of life.

Themes: Beauty, Celebration, Nature

Speaker: John Keats

Emotions Evoked: Grief, Hopelessness, Sadness

Poetic Form: Ode

Time Period: 19th Century

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
 Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,

Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

 Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time

I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!

No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

Summary of Ode to a Nightingale

● Popularity: Written by John Keats, a popular romantic poet, “Ode to Nightingale “is a
phenomenal poem that relates life’s sufferings to the briefness of the bird’s song. It was first
published in 1819. The poem explores the wonder of life and death. It comprises the experience
of the poet, his miseries and poetic imagination. Its popularity lies in the fact that it represents
things related to life, art, literature, and nature and seeks a common relationship among them.
● As a Representative of life and Death: The poem explores two main issues: the first is the
connection between agony and joy and the second is the connection between life and death. The
poet very artistically draws a comparison between natural and imaginative world, the world of a
nightingale. Saddened, he tries to seek comfort and harmony in his imaginative world, but the
pull of his consciousness brings him back to confront the heart-wrenching realities of life.
Ultimately, he realizes that only death can offer a permanent escape from pain. Disturbed by the
misfortune of his life, he wants the finest wine and his poetic imagination to throw away the
horrific realities of life. His desire to be drunk or unconscious shows that he does not to
remember his hardships and sufferings. However, what enchants the reader is his flight of
imagination that temporarily takes him away from the odds of life.
● Major Themes: Death, immortality, mortality and poetic imaginations are some of the major
themes of this ode. Keats says that death is an unavoidable phenomenon. He paints it in both
negative and positive ways. On the one hand, its presence sucks the human spirit, while on the
other hand, it offers the realm of free eternity. The poet also presents the life and melodious song
of the nightingale in juxtaposition. To him, life is mortal, but the song of the nightingale is
immortal. It has been a source of enjoyment for centuries and will stay so even after his demise.
Though he keeps himself engaged in the beautiful and charming world of imaginations, he cannot
stay there for good. Therefore, he accepts that imagination is just a short source of peace.
Analysis of Literary Devices in “Ode to Nightingale”
literary devices are tools used by writers and poets to convey emotions, ideas, and beliefs. With the help
of these devices, they make their texts appealing to the reader. Keats has also used some literary devices
in this poem to make it unique and appealing. The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this
poem has been given below.

1. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound
of /th/ in “That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees”.
2. Simile: A simile is a figure of speech used to compare something with something else to make its
meaning clear. Keats has used simile in the second stanza, “Forlorn! the very word is like a bell.”
Here the poet is comparing forlorn to a bell.
3. Enjambment: Enjambment refers to the continuation of a sentence without a pause after the end
of a line in a couplet or stanza. For example:

“My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains.”

1. Imagery: The use of imagery makes the readers visualize the writer’s feelings, emotions or ideas.
Keats has used images to present a clear and vivid picture of his miserable plight such as, “though
of hemlock I had drunk,”, “Past the near meadows,”, “Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves.”
2. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of same vowel sounds in the same lines of poetry such as
the sound of /o/ in “In some melodious plot” and /i/ sound in “The voice I hear this passing night
was heard.”
3. Metaphor: There are two metaphors in this poem. The first one is used in line eleven, “for a
beaker full of the warm south”. Here he compares liquid with the southern country weather.
4. Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to non-human things. Keats has used
personification in line twenty-nine, “where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes” as if the beauty
is human and can see. The second example is in line thirty-six, “The Queen moon is on her
throne.”
5. Anaphora: It refers to the repetition initial words of sentences in sequence or in the whole stanza
or even the poem. Keats has repeated the word “where” in the following lines to emphasize the
existence of his imaginative world. For example:

“Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes.”

6. Apostrophe: An apostrophe is a device used to call somebody from afar. The poet has used this device
in line sixty-one, “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird.”

The literary analysis shows that this poem successfully describes Keat’s deep meditations about death
under cover of these literary devices.

Analysis of Poetic Devices in “Ode to Nightingale”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of
the poetic devices used in this poem.
 1. Stanza: Stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are eight stanzas in this poem with ten lines
in each stanza.
2. Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows ABABCDECDE throughout the poem with iambic
pentameter.
3. End Rhyme: End Rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious such as in the first stanza the
rhyming words are, “pains”, “drains”, “drunk”, “sunk.”
4. Internal Rhyme: Internal Rhyme is rhyme within a line such as in the line, “To toll me back
from thee to my sole self” two words “me” and “thee” rhyme with each other.
5. Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter consisting of five iambs. The poem comprises iambic
pentameter such as, “My Heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains.”

Quotes to be Used
These lines can be used in a speech when discussing the power and pull of the imaginative world that
offers a peaceful escape from the heavy odds of life.

“O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!”

Summary
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ was written in 1819, and it is the longest one, with 8 stanzas of 10 lines
each. It was written at Charles Brown’s house, after Keats was struck by the melancholy singing
of a nightingale bird, and it travels through the cabal of the Greek gods, all the while
emphasizing the feeling of melancholy – a tragic and often very Greek emotion that Keats would
have no doubt learned through his readings.

Analysis of Ode to a Nightingale

The poem itself is very unhappy; Keats is stunned at the happiness of the bird and despairs at
the difference between it and its happiness and his own unhappy life. At the start of ‘Ode to a
Nightingale’, the heavy sense of melancholy draws allusions to Ode to Melancholy, and Keats –
despite the death imagery – does not really want to die. The conflicted nature of human life – a
mixture of pain/joy, emotion/numbness, the actual/the ideal, etc – dominates the poem, so much
so that, even at the end, it is unclear whether or not it happened – ‘do I wake or dream?’

It can also be assumed that the heavy imagery of death and sickness could hark back to his
experiences taking care of his elder brother, who died of tuberculosis under John Keats’ care.
The unhappiness, however, that Keats feels in the poem is not necessarily miserable – Keats
writes that he has been ‘half in love with easeful Death’, and describes the joy of listening to the
nightingale’s song in a sort of euphoria. It can therefore be considered that Keats would rather
forget his unhappiness than die: the references to Hemlock, and Lethe, solidify this argument,
as both would blur the memory enough to allow Keats to forget.

There are heavy allusions to mythology: Lethe, the river of forgetting that flows through the
underworld; Hippocrene, the fountain of the Muses made by Pegasus’ hooves which brings
inspiration; dryads, the spirit protectors of the forest; Bacchus, god of wine and debauchery;
Ruth and the corn-field is a reference to the book in the Bible; hemlock, the poison that killed
Socrates; Flora, the Roman goddess of nature.

Nature and imagination are shown to be a brief reprieve from human suffering, hence the song
of the nightingale, and its impressions. There is also a shift from reality to idealism: Keats says
that he would like to drink from ‘a draught of fine vintage’ (a very fine wine) and transport himself
to the ideal world that the nightingale belongs to. He states that he will not be taken there by
Bacchus and his pards (Bacchanalia, revelry, and chaos) but by poetry and art. Keats then goes
on to describe his ideal world, making reference to the ‘Queen Moon’ and all her ‘starry-eyed
Fay’ – however, Keats cannot actually transport himself into this world, and the end of the
nightingale’s song brings about the end of his fantasy. ‘Country green’, ‘Provencal song’, and
‘sunburned mirth’ all point to a highly fantastical reality, especially considering the status of the
world at the time, and the mythological references help to maintain a surreal, dreamlike state
throughout the entire poem and to charge Keats’ fantasies with identifiable ideas and figures.

Keats uses the senses heavily in all his poetry, relying on synaesthetic descriptions to draw the
reader into ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. It works especially well here because Keats’ fantasy world is
dark and sensuous, and he ‘cannot see what flowers are at my feet’; he is ‘in embalmed
darkness’. The darkness may have helped his imagination to flourish and furnish his ideal
creation, as well as lending a supernatural air to ‘Ode to a Nightingale’.

The drowsiness comes from the longing to flee the world and join the nightingale – to become
like the nightingale, beautiful and immortal and organic – and after rejecting joining the
nightingale through Bacchanalian activity, he decides that he will attempt to join the bird through
poetry. Thus, the rapture of poetic inspiration matches the rapture of the nightingale’s music and
thereby links nature to poetry to art (nature as art and beauty, a Romantic ideal). He calls the
bird ‘immortal’, thereby also stating that nature will survive man.

The bird’s song translates inspiration into something that the outside world can understand; like
art, the nightingale’s singing is changeable and renewable, and it is music that is ‘organic’, not
made with a machine. It is art, but art that cannot be viewed and has no physical form. As night
shifts into the day – shifting from the supernatural back into fact – the bird goes from being a
bird to a symbol of art, happiness, freedom, and joy, back to being a bird. It is contrasted, in the
third stanza, by the reality of the world around him – sickness, ill health, and conflict.
The first half of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ represents the way man was – the pleasurable moments
of life that overwhelm and leave a gap behind when they’re over; the second half is maturity,
and understanding truth, which leads to pleasure but also leads to pain.

In the end, Keats realizes that merging with the ‘embalmed darkness’ means dying, giving
himself up completely to death, and becoming one of the worlds that he admires, however, it
would mean that he can no longer hear the nightingale and would be farther away from beauty.
Neither life nor death is acceptable to Keats. He belongs nowhere.

Historical Background
In 1819, Keats left his paid position as a dresser at the hospital to devote himself to a career in
poetry, and it was during the spring that he wrote the five major odes, before delving into a
variety of other forms of poetry.

● Rhyme scheme: ababcXacXa dedeeXfedf cdcdaaXaaX gXXacdXcda cacahdahda

fefegdhXdh hdhdefdefd ijijafkafk
● Stanza lengths (in strings): 10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,
● Closest metre: iambic pentameter
● Сlosest rhyme: rima
● Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
● Guessed form: blank verse
● Metre: 1111010101 1111011111 11011100001 101111111 1111001101 11011001100
11111001 0101001 0101111100 1001001101 1101010110 101100111 1001010101
1110011111 1101010011 1001010100 0101010101 11011 1111110101 101101000101
1101011101 1101011101 0100010101 1111111101 1101011111 1111110111 11010001010
110101 1101010101 11111001011 0101110101 1100110101 110101010 1011010101
0100110001 1100110101 1001110101 111011 11010000101 11001110101 11011101111
1110110101 100110111 10001000101 0101010111 11110100101 11010010101 111101
0101110101 01001011101 10110111001 11010101001 1111010011 0100011101
1111010101 0101011011 1111011101 011100 1111111101 0111000101 1111110101
1101010111 0111010111 0101110011 0101111101 1011011111 11010101001 011111
110100100101 01001010101 0101010101 0111010111 0101010111 1101010101
0101110101 1011110011 1011111101 001101 1001010101 1011011111
● Amount of stanzas: 8
● Average number of symbols per stanza: 465
● Average number of words per stanza: 76
● Amount of lines: 80
● Average number of symbols per line: 46 (strings are more long than medium ones)
● Average number of words per line: 8
● Mood of the speaker:
The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.
 ● The author used lexical repetitions to emphasize a significant image; of, and, where, to,
adieu are repeated.
The poet used anaphora at the beginnings of some neighboring lines. The same words
my, where, the are repeated.
The literary device anadiplosis is detected in two or more neighboring lines. The
word/phrase forlorn connects the lines.

"Ode to a Nightingale" is a poem by John Keats written either in the garden of the Spaniards
Inn, Hampstead, London or, according to Keats' friend Charles Armitage Brown, under a plum
tree in the garden of Keats' house at Wentworth Place, also in Hampstead. According to Brown,
a nightingale had built its nest near the house that he shared with Keats in the spring of 1819.
Inspired by the bird's song, Keats composed the poem in one day. It soon became one of his
1819 odes and was first published in Annals of the Fine Arts the following July. The poem is one
of the most frequently anthologized in the English language.[1]

"Ode to a Nightingale" is a personal poem which describes Keats' journey into the state of
negative capability. The tone of the poem rejects the optimistic pursuit of pleasure found within
Keats's earlier poems and, instead, explores the themes of nature, transience and mortality, the
latter being particularly relevant to Keats.

The nightingale described experiences a type of death but does not actually die. Instead, the
songbird is capable of living through its song, which is a fate that humans cannot expect. The
poem ends with an acceptance that pleasure cannot last and that death is an inevitable part of
life. In the poem, Keats imagines the loss of the physical world and sees himself dead—as a
"sod" over which the nightingale sings. The contrast between the immortal nightingale and
mortal man sitting in his garden, is made all the more acute by an effort of the imagination. The
presence of weather is noticeable in the poem, as spring came early in 1819, bringing
nightingales all over the heath.[2]

Background
 Joseph Severn's depiction of Keats listening to the
nightingale (c. 1845)

Of Keats's six major odes of 1819, "Ode to Psyche", was probably written first and "To Autumn"
written last. Some time between these two, he wrote "Ode to a Nightingale".[3] It is possible that
"Ode to a Nightingale" was written between 26 April and 18 May 1819, based on weather
conditions and similarities between images in the poem and those in a letter sent to Fanny
Brawne on May Day. The poem was composed at the Hampstead house Keats shared with
Brown, possibly while sitting beneath a plum tree in the garden.[4] According to Keats' friend
Brown, Keats finished the ode in just one morning: "In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built
her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he
took his chair from the breakfast-table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two
or three hours. When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his
hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the books. On inquiry, I found those scraps,
four or five in number, contained his poetic feelings on the song of the nightingale."[5] Brown's
account is personal, as he claimed the poem was directly influenced by his house and
preserved by his own doing. However, Keats relied on both his own imagination and other
literature as sources for his depiction of the nightingale.[6]

The exact date of "Ode to a Nightingale", as well as those of "Ode on Indolence", "Ode on
Melancholy", and "Ode on a Grecian Urn", is unknown, as Keats dated all as 'May 1819'.
However, he worked on the four poems together, and there is a unity in both their stanza forms
and their themes. The exact order in which the poems were written is also unknown, but they
form a sequence within their structures. While Keats was writing "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and
the other poems, Brown transcribed copies of the poems and submitted them to Richard
Woodhouse.[7] During this time, Benjamin Haydon, Keats' friend, was given a copy of "Ode to a
Nightingale", and he shared the poem with the editor of the Annals of the Fine Arts, James
Elmes. Elmes paid Keats a small sum of money, and the poem was published in the July
issue.[8] The poem was later included in Keats' 1820 collection of poems Lamia, Isabella, The
Eve of St Agnes, and Other Poems.[9]
Structure
"Ode to a Nightingale" was probably the first of the middle set of four odes that Keats wrote
following "Ode to Psyche", according to Brown. This is further evidenced by the poems'
structures. Keats experimentally combines two different types of lyrical poetry: the odal hymn
and the lyric of questioning voice that responds to the odal hymn. This combination of structures
is similar to that in "Ode on a Grecian Urn". In both poems, the dual form creates a dramatic
element within the text. The stanza form of the poem is a combination of elements from
Petrarchan sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets.[10]

Keats incorporates a pattern of alternating historically "short" and "long" vowel sounds in his
ode. In particular, line 18 ("And purple-stained mouth") has the historical pattern of "short"
followed by "long" followed by "short" and followed by "long". This alternation is continued in
longer lines, including line 31 ("Away! away! for I will fly to thee") which contains five pairs of
alternations. However, other lines, such as line 3 ("Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains")
rely on a pattern of five "short" vowels followed by "long" and "short" vowel pairings until they
end with a "long" vowel. These are not the only combination patterns present, and there are
patterns of two "short" vowels followed by a "long" vowel in other lines, including 12, 22, and 59,
which are repeated twice and then followed up with two sets of "short" and then "long" vowel
pairs. This reliance on vowel sounds is not unique to this ode, but is common to Keats's other
1819 odes and his Eve of St. Agnes.[11]

The poem incorporates a complex reliance on assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds—in a

conscious pattern, as found in many of his poems. Such a reliance on assonance is found in
very few English poems. Within "Ode to a Nightingale", an example of this pattern can be found
in line 35 ("Already with thee! tender is the night"), where the "ea" of "Already" connects with the
"e" of "tender" and the "i" of "with" connects with the "i" of "is". This same pattern is found again
in line 41 ("I cannot see what flowers are at my feet") with the "a" of "cannot" linking with the "a"
of "at" and the "ee" of "see" linking with the "ee" of "feet". This system of assonance can be
found in approximately a tenth of the lines of Keats's later poetry.[12]

When it comes to other sound patterns, Keats relies on double or triple caesuras in
approximately 6% of lines throughout the 1819 odes. An example from "Ode to a Nightingale"
can be found within line 45 ("The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild") as the pauses after
the commas are a "masculine" pause. Furthermore, Keats began to reduce the amount of
Latin-based words and syntax that he relied on in his poetry, which in turn shortened the length
of the words that dominate the poem. There is also an emphasis on words beginning with
consonants, especially those that begin with "b", "p" or "v". The first stanza relies heavily on
these three consonants, and they are used as a syzygy to add a musical tone within the
poem.[13]

Compared to his earlier verse, spondees are relatively abundant in his 1819 odes and other late
poems. In "Ode to a Nightingale" they are used in just over 8% of his lines (compared to a mere
2.6% in Endymion). Examples include:[14]
/ × / / × × / / × /
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvèd earth (line 12)

× / × / × / / / / /
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last, grey hairs (line 25)

To Walter Jackson Bate, the use of spondees in lines 31–34 creates a feeling of slow flight, and
"in the final stanza . . . the distinctive use of scattered spondees, together with initial inversion,
lend[s] an approximate phonetic suggestion of the peculiar spring and bounce of the bird in its
flight."[15]

Poem

Holograph of Keats's Ode to a Nightingale written in May

1819

The first and sixth stanzas exemplify the juxtaposition of rapture and morbidity in the poem:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
 ...
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.[16]

— Stanzas 1 and 6 (lines 1-10, 51-60)

Themes
"Ode to a Nightingale" describes a series of conflicts between reality and the Romantic ideal of
uniting with nature. In the words of Richard Fogle, "The principal stress of the poem is a struggle
between ideal and actual: inclusive terms which, however, contain more particular antitheses of
pleasure and pain, of imagination and common sense reason, of fullness and privation, of
permanence and change, of nature and the human, of art and life, freedom and bondage,
waking and dream."[17] Of course, the nightingale's song is the dominant image and dominant
"voice" within the ode. The nightingale is also the object of empathy and praise within the poem.
However, the nightingale and the discussion of the nightingale is not simply about the bird or the
song, but about human experience in general. This is not to say that the song is a simple
metaphor, but it is a complex image that is formed through the interaction of the conflicting
voices of praise and questioning.[18] On this theme, David Perkins summarizes the way "Ode to
a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" perform this when he says, "we are dealing with a
talent, indeed an entire approach to poetry, in which symbol, however necessary, may possibly
not satisfy as the principal concern of poetry, any more than it could with Shakespeare, but is
rather an element in the poetry and drama of human reactions".[19] However, there is a
difference between an urn and a nightingale in that the nightingale is not an eternal entity.
Furthermore, in creating any aspect of the nightingale immortal during the poem the narrator
separates any union that he can have with the nightingale.[20]

The nightingale's song within the poem is connected to the art of music in a way that the urn in
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" is connected to the art of sculpture. As such, the nightingale would
represent an enchanting presence and, unlike the urn, is directly connected to nature. As
natural music, the song is for beauty and lacks a message of truth. Keats follows Coleridge's
belief, as found in "The Nightingale", in separating from the world by losing himself in the bird's
song. Although Keats favours a female nightingale over Coleridge's masculine bird, both reject
the traditional depiction of the nightingale as related to the tragedy of Philomela.[21] Their
songbird is a happy nightingale that lacks the melancholic feel of previous poetic depictions.[22]
The bird is only a voice within the poem, but it is a voice that compels the narrator to join with in
and forget the sorrows of the world. However, there is tension in that the narrator holds Keats's
guilt regarding the death of Tom Keats, his brother. The song's conclusion represents the result
of trying to escape into the realm of fancy.[23]

Like Percy Bysshe Shelley's "To a Skylark", Keats's narrator listens to a bird song, but listening
to the song within "Ode to a Nightingale" is almost painful and similar to death. The narrator
seeks to be with the nightingale and abandons his sense of vision in order to embrace the
sound in an attempt to share in the darkness with the bird. As the poem ends, the trance caused
by the nightingale is broken and the narrator is left wondering if it was a real vision or just a
dream.[24] The poem's reliance on the process of sleeping is common to Keats's poems, and
"Ode to a Nightingale" shares many of the same themes as Keats' Sleep and Poetry and Eve of
St. Agnes. This further separates the image of the nightingale's song from its closest
comparative image, the urn as represented in "Ode on a Grecian Urn". The nightingale is distant
and mysterious, and even disappears at the end of the poem. The dream image emphasizes
the shadowiness and elusiveness of the poem. These elements make it impossible for there to
be a complete self-identification with the nightingale, but it also allows for self-awareness to
permeate throughout the poem, albeit in an altered state.[25]

Midway through the poem, there is a split between the two actions of the poem: the first
attempts to identify with the nightingale and its song, and the second discusses the
convergence of the past with the future while experiencing the present. This second theme is
reminiscent of Keats's view of human progression through the Mansion of Many Apartments and
how man develops from experiencing and wanting only pleasure to understanding truth as a
mixture of both pleasure and pain. The Elysian fields and the nightingale's song in the first half
of the poem represent the pleasurable moments that overwhelm the individual like a drug.
However, the experience does not last forever, and the body is left desiring it until the narrator
feels helpless without the pleasure. Instead of embracing the coming truth, the narrator clings to
poetry to hide from the loss of pleasure. Poetry does not bring about the pleasure that the
narrator original asks for, but it does liberate him from his desire for only pleasure.[26]

Responding to this emphasis on pleasure, Albert Guerard, Jr. argues that the poem contains a
"longing not for art but a free reverie of any kind. The form of the poem is that of progression by
association, so that the movement of feeling is at the mercy of words evoked by chance, such
words as fade and forlorn, the very words that, like a bell, toll the dreamer back to his sole
self."[27] However, Fogle points out that the terms Guerard emphasizes are "associational
translations" and that Guerard misunderstands Keats's aesthetic.[28] After all, the acceptance of
the loss of pleasure by the end of the poem is an acceptance of life and, in turn, of death. Death
was a constant theme that permeated aspects of Keats poetry because he was exposed to
death of his family members throughout his life.[29] Within the poem, there are many images of
death. The nightingale experiences a sort of death and even the god Apollo experiences death,
but his death reveals his own divine state. As Perkins explains, "But, of course, the nightingale
is not thought to be literally dying. The point is that the deity or the nightingale can sing without
dying. But, as the ode makes clear, man cannot—or at least not in a visionary way."[30]
With this theme of a loss of pleasure and inevitable death, the poem, according to Claude
Finney, describes "the inadequacy of the romantic escape from the world of reality to the world
of ideal beauty".[31] Earl Wasserman essentially agrees with Finney, but he extended his
summation of the poem to incorporate the themes of Keats's Mansion of Many Apartments
when he says, "the core of the poem is the search for the mystery, the unsuccessful quest for
light within its darkness" and this "leads only to an increasing darkness, or a growing recognition
of how impenetrable the mystery is to mortals."[32] With these views in mind, the poem recalls
Keats's earlier view of pleasure and an optimistic view of poetry found within his earlier poems,
especially Sleep and Poetry, and rejects them.[33] This loss of pleasure and incorporation of
death imagery lends the poem a dark air, which connects "Ode to a Nightingale" with Keats'
other poems that discuss the demonic nature of poetic imagination, including Lamia.[34] In the
poem, Keats imagines the loss of the physical world and sees himself dead—he uses an abrupt,
almost brutal word for it—as a "sod" over which the nightingale sings. The contrast between the
immortal nightingale and mortal man, sitting in his garden, is made all the more acute by an
effort of the imagination.[35]

Summary

The speaker opens with a declaration of his own heartache. He feels numb, as though he had
taken a drug only a moment ago. He is addressing a nightingale he hears singing somewhere in
the forest and says that his “drowsy numbness” is not from envy of the nightingale’s happiness,
but rather from sharing it too completely; he is “too happy” that the nightingale sings the music
of summer from amid some unseen plot of green trees and shadows.

In the second stanza, the speaker longs for the oblivion of alcohol, expressing his wish for wine,
“a draught of vintage,” that would taste like the country and like peasant dances, and let him
“leave the world unseen” and disappear into the dim forest with the nightingale. In the third
stanza, he explains his desire to fade away, saying he would like to forget the troubles the
nightingale has never known: “the weariness, the fever, and the fret” of human life, with its
consciousness that everything is mortal and nothing lasts. Youth “grows pale, and spectre-thin,
and dies,” and “beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes.”

In the fourth stanza, the speaker tells the nightingale to fly away, and he will follow, not through
alcohol (“Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards”), but through poetry, which will give him
“viewless wings.” He says he is already with the nightingale and describes the forest glade,
where even the moonlight is hidden by the trees, except the light that breaks through when the
breezes blow the branches. In the fifth stanza, the speaker says that he cannot see the flowers
in the glade, but can guess them “in embalmed darkness”: white hawthorne, eglantine, violets,
and the musk-rose, “the murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.” In the sixth stanza, the
speaker listens in the dark to the nightingale, saying that he has often been “half in love” with
the idea of dying and called Death soft names in many rhymes. Surrounded by the nightingale’s
song, the speaker thinks that the idea of death seems richer than ever, and he longs to “cease
upon the midnight with no pain” while the nightingale pours its soul ecstatically forth. If he were
to die, the nightingale would continue to sing, he says, but he would “have ears in vain” and be
no longer able to hear.

In the seventh stanza, the speaker tells the nightingale that it is immortal, that it was not “born
for death.” He says that the voice he hears singing has always been heard, by ancient emperors
and clowns, by homesick Ruth; he even says the song has often charmed open magic windows
looking out over “the foam / Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.” In the eighth stanza, the
word forlorn tolls like a bell to restore the speaker from his preoccupation with the nightingale
and back into himself. As the nightingale flies farther away from him, he laments that his
imagination has failed him and says that he can no longer recall whether the nightingale’s music
was “a vision, or a waking dream.” Now that the music is gone, the speaker cannot recall
whether he himself is awake or asleep.
Form

Like most of the other odes, “Ode to a Nightingale” is written in ten-line stanzas. However,
unlike most of the other poems, it is metrically variable—though not so much as “Ode to
Psyche.” The first seven and last two lines of each stanza are written in iambic pentameter; the
eighth line of each stanza is written in trimeter, with only three accented syllables instead of five.
“Nightingale” also differs from the other odes in that its rhyme scheme is the same in every
stanza (every other ode varies the order of rhyme in the final three or four lines except “To
Psyche,” which has the loosest structure of all the odes). Each stanza in “Nightingale” is rhymed
ABABCDECDE, Keats’s most basic scheme throughout the odes.
Themes

With “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats’s speaker begins his fullest and deepest exploration of the
themes of creative expression and the mortality of human life. In this ode, the transience of life
and the tragedy of old age (“where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, / Where youth
grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies”) is set against the eternal renewal of the nightingale’s
fluid music (“Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird!”). The speaker reprises the “drowsy
numbness” he experienced in “Ode on Indolence,” but where in “Indolence” that numbness was
a sign of disconnection from experience, in “Nightingale” it is a sign of too full a connection:
“being too happy in thine happiness,” as the speaker tells the nightingale. Hearing the song of
the nightingale, the speaker longs to flee the human world and join the bird. His first thought is
to reach the bird’s state through alcohol—in the second stanza, he longs for a “draught of
vintage” to transport him out of himself. But after his meditation in the third stanza on the
transience of life, he rejects the idea of being “charioted by Bacchus and his pards” (Bacchus
was the Roman god of wine and was supposed to have been carried by a chariot pulled by
leopards) and chooses instead to embrace, for the first time since he refused to follow the
figures in “Indolence,” “the viewless wings of Poesy.”

The rapture of poetic inspiration matches the endless creative rapture of the nightingale’s music and lets
the speaker, in stanzas five through seven, imagine himself with the bird in the darkened forest. The
ecstatic music even encourages the speaker to embrace the idea of dying, of painlessly succumbing to
death while enraptured by the nightingale’s music and never experiencing any further pain or
disappointment. But when his meditation causes him to utter the word “forlorn,” he comes back to himself,
recognizing his fancy for what it is—an imagined escape from the inescapable (“Adieu! the fancy cannot
cheat so well / As she is fam’d to do, deceiving elf”). As the nightingale flies away, the intensity of the
speaker’s experience has left him shaken, unable to remember whether he is awake or asleep.

In “Indolence,” the speaker rejected all artistic effort. In “Psyche,” he was willing to embrace the creative
imagination, but only for its own internal pleasures. But in the nightingale’s song, he finds a form of
outward expression that translates the work of the imagination into the outside world, and this is the
discovery that compels him to embrace Poesy’s “viewless wings” at last. The “art” of the nightingale is
endlessly changeable and renewable; it is music without record, existing only in a perpetual present. As
befits his celebration of music, the speaker’s language, sensually rich though it is, serves to suppress the
sense of sight in favor of the other senses. He can imagine the light of the moon, “But here there is no
light”; he knows he is surrounded by flowers, but he “cannot see what flowers” are at his feet. This
suppression will find its match in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” which is in many ways a companion poem to
“Ode to a Nightingale.” In the later poem, the speaker will finally confront a created art-object not subject
to any of the limitations of time; in “Nightingale,” he has achieved creative expression and has placed his
faith in it, but that expression—the nightingale’s song—is spontaneous and without physical
manifestation.

The Hollow Men

T.S. Eliot
‘The Hollow Men’ presents the hollow, degenerated, and disillusioned people dealing with their
meaningless existence amidst the ruins of the postwar world.

Key Poem Information

Central Message: Hollow men doing nothing are worst than men doing evil

Themes: Religion, Spirituality

Speaker: A man from the group of hollow men

Emotions Evoked: Anxiety, Faith, Fear, Hopelessness, Sadness

Poetic Form: Free Verse

Time Period: 20th Century

'The Hollow Men' incredibly paints the dismal human condition in the aftermath of World War 1
by presenting the actionless people leading purposeless lives while being disillusioned from
prewar ideals.
‘The Hollow Men’ by T.S. Eliot is a free verse poem that was written without a specific rhyme
scheme or meter in mind. The poem is made up of stanzas of varying lengths, grouped together
into five distinct sections.

Although there is no rhyming pattern, Eliot does make use of a number of poetic techniques that
help to unify the lines. One of the most prominent of these is anaphora, or the repetition of a
word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. In the first stanza, Eliot uses “We” to begin
three of the ten lines. This technique is even more pronounced in the final section, which takes
the form of a child’s song. Due to the structure of the song, the words “Between” and “And” are
repeated over and over again.

Everything around the hollow men seems to be falling apart. From the “broken column” to the
broken glass on the floor and the “broken stone” to which the men must pray. Other important
images a reader should pay attention to are those related to Heaven, or a place like it, and a
vaguely defined shadowy presence.

The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other kingdom
Remember us - if at all - not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer -
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of this tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.

T.S. Eliot
An American-born English poet and writer that was immensely influential in 20th century English
literature. Eliot is best known for his poems entitled The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,
Gerontonin, and The Waste Land. He was part of the modernist movement of other poets and authors
during that time, and in 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. A couple of verses from The
Hollow Men were quoted in Apocalypse Now and the poem's most famous line, "Not with a bang, but
with a whimper," has become a well-known passage, and referenced in media and culture quite
Frequently.

Summary of The Hollow Men

● Popularity of “The Hollow Men”: Written by T.S. Eliot, a popular British modernist, “The
Hollow Men” first emerged in 1925. Since then, the poem has won unprecedented popularity in
the literary circles. Its enigmatic and thought-provoking themes have won it a special position
among literature lovers. The poem references the repercussions of World War I, the decline of
Western culture and civilization, and the emptiness of modern life. To top it all, “The Hollow
Men” has been adapted into various art forms, including music, theater, and film, cementing its
place among the classic poetic pieces.
● “The Hollow Men” As a Representative of Spiritual Emptiness: “The Hollow Men” is a
representative of the disillusionment of the modern world and the spiritual emptiness Eliot
witnessed in British society following the devastation brought by World War I. The poem
explores several themes with the language failing in the face of new realities. The use of various
literary devices, such as repetition, fragmentation, and allusion, convey the desolation and
devastation of the world. The poem also refers to religious and contemporary allusions to
highlight the spiritual decay prevalent at that time. This commentary on the human condition has
brought Eliot’s poetic art to the forefront of modern poetic circles.
● Major Themes in “The Hollow Men”: “The Hollow Men” explores various major themes that
reflect the poet’s disillusionment with the modern world and the resultant human condition. The
first major theme is the loss of hope and the absence of meaningful connections. The hollow men
are “Shape without form, shade without colour, / Paralysed force, gesture without motion”. This
shows how they are just replicas of human beings. It also shows the idea of a world devoid of
spirituality and moral values where individuals feel disconnected from their inner selves. The
image of the dead land shows the world as a barren desert symbolizing the emptiness and futility
of modern life. The poem further highlights the human struggle for meaning in life with the
hollow men stuck in a state of limbo. This lethargy prevails over human beings. Therefore, Eliot
explores the themes of death, decay, and the human desire for redemption. Despite its complexity
and multidimensionality, the poem has a good aspect of showing what the world feels to modern
man.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in The Hollow Men
The poet Eliot’s use of various literary devices in this poem is facilitating as well as meaningful. Some of
the major literary devices are analyzed below.

1. Alliteration: It is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words such as “We
whispter together” which shows the sound of /w/ or, for that matter, the line 31 /d/ sound in
“death’s dream kingdom.” This shows a rhythmic and melodic effect, enhancing the poetic
quality of the line.
2. Allusion: This literary device shows a reference to a well-known person, place, event, or work of
literature, such as line 1 shows “Mistah Kurtz-he dead” taken from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness. It highlights the theme of moral decay and the darkness within human nature.
3. Apostrophe: This is a figure of speech where a person absent or dead, or an abstract concept, is
addressed directly. The reference to “Mistah Kurtz-he dead” directly addresses “Mistah Kurtz,”
emphasizing his absence and implying the speaker’s disillusionment.
4. Assonance: This literary device is a repetition of vowel sounds within words such as line 11 “In
death’s dream kingdom” shows the repetition of /ee/ sound in “dream” and “kingdom” creates a
musical quality.
5. Enjambment: This literary device shows the continuation of a sentence or thought without a
pause beyond the end of a line or stanza. For example, lines “Between the idea / And the reality /
Between the motion / And the act” show the use of this device which bring flow in the thoughts.
6. Hyperbole: This literary device shows exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken
literally. For example, “This is the dead land” shows a hyperbolic statement, emphasizing the
desolation and lifelessness of the land.
7. Imagery: This literary device shows the use of descriptive language to create vivid mental
pictures. For example, “Sunlight on a broken column,” and “Waking alone” and “Lips that would
kiss” show the use of different images.
8. Irony: This literary device shows a contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.
For example, “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper” show ironic
contrast between the expected dramatic ending and the subdued, anticlimactic conclusion.
9. Metaphor: This literary device is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two
different things. For example, “Shape without form, shade without colour” show a metaphorical
description, portraying the hollow men as shapeless, empty beings.
10. Personification: This literary device shows human characteristics to non-human objects or
concepts. For example, “Voices are / In the wind’s singing” show the poet personifying the voices
in the wind adding an eerie and haunting quality to the poem.
11. Repetition: This literary device shows the use of repeated words or phrases for emphasis or for
creating a pattern. For example, “This is the way the world ends” show the repetition of the
phrase emphasizing the inevitability and finality of the world’s end.
12. Symbolism: This literary device shows the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. For
example, “a penny for the Old Guy” and “We are the hollow men” show burning effigies on Guy
Fawkes Night, representing the transience and emptiness of human existence.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in The Hollow Men

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of
the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Diction: It is the choice and arrangement of words. The poem shows broken, formal, and poetic
diction to suit the broken themes.
2. End Rhyme: End rhyme is a poetic device where the words at the end of two or more lines in a
stanza rhyme with each other. “The Hollow Men” shows Eliot using end rhyme in some places,
but overall there is no fixed end rhyme.
3. Meter: Meter is a poetic device that refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in
verse. In “The Hollow Men,” Eliot uses a mixed meter, incorporating both iambic pentameter and
irregular meter at different places, but overall there is no fixed metrical pattern.
4. Rhyme Scheme: Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes in a poem. “The Hollow Men”
shows Eliot using an irregular rhyme scheme.
 5. Poem Type: “The Hollow Men” is a free verse poem, meaning it does not follow a specific
rhyme or meter pattern.
6. Stanza: The poem is divided into five stanzas, with each stanza having a different number of
lines. The stanzas vary in type, with the first three stanzas being tercets (three-line stanzas), the
fourth stanza being a quatrain (four-line stanza), and the final stanza being a single line.
7. Tone: Tone refers to the writer’s attitude towards the subject matter or audience in a literary
work. “The Hollow Men” uses a detached and despondent tone as Eliot explores the emptiness
and futility of human existence.

Quotes to be Used
This quote is appropriate for various situations where a grandiose or dramatic event is expected, but it
ends up being anticlimactic or underwhelming. For example, it could be used in a movie or book review
where the ending is disappointing or in a political commentary where a highly anticipated event turns out
to be a letdown.

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Summary of The Hollow Men

‘The Hollow Men’ by T.S. Eliot describes a group of “Hollow Men” who live in a barren world as they
await a change in their circumstances.

The poem begins with the speaker, who is really a group, describing how their lives as “The Hollow
Men.” They are, or they are, like a group of scarecrows. The men are existing somewhere between life
and death in a world they have no agency in. It becomes clear as the poem progresses that they are unable
to enter into true death. There is no money for them to cross the river. Instead, they have to wait for
something to change.

At the end of the poem, the men are described as dancing around a cactus and singing. Even in this
context, they are unable to finish the song or their prayers to God. The poem ends with the speaker stating
that the world is going to end anticlimactic. There will be no big explosion. Instead, it will go out with a
whisper.

Analysis of The Hollow Men

Epigraph
Mistah Kurtz-he dead
A penny for the Old Guy

The poem begins with an epigraph or a written statement after the death of Mistah Kurtz, an ivory trader
from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. His connection to the poem likely comes from a quote
describing him as being hollow. He does not have a moral compass to guide him or the instincts of a
decent human being.

The second epigraph is slightly more complicated and is connected to the historical figure Guy Fawkes
and his plot to blow up Parliament in the early 1600s. The phrase “penny for the guy” is connected to
asking for money on November the fifth, or Guy Fawkes Day. One should also consider other connections
between death and a penny or coin. The most important is Charon, the ferryman who is responsible for
guiding the newly dead across the River Styx. Without a coin to pay him, one would become stuck. This
is partially the situation that the Hollow Men are in.

Section One
Stanza One

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

The poem begins in the first stanza with the speaker, who is considered to be the collective “Hollow Men”
He informs the reader of this fact by stating that “We” are both stuffed and hollow. They are like
scarecrows, appearing like men but with a “Headpiece filled with straw.”

Their voices, like the rest of their lives and the setting, are dry. They try to speak to one another, but
everything they say is “meaningless.” The speaker ends the stanza by comparing their words to the wind
and the wind to “rats’ feet over broken glass.”

Stanzas Two and Three

Shape without form, shade without colour,

Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed

With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

He goes on to refer to himself and all those like him as being “without” true form. They are a “shade
without colour” or a “gesture without motion.” This is how purposeless their words and thoughts are, if
they even have any.

The speaker also describes a scenario in which someone who knows them crossed into their land. Eliot’s
speakers describe how this person if they remembered the Hollow Men, would know them “not as lost” or
“Violent” but simply as “hollow men” or “stuffed men.” They are filled, but the filling is as good to them
as empty space.

Section Two
Stanza One

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
 There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

The second section of the poem begins with a ten-line stanza. Here, the speaker describes another feature
of the Hollow Men. They are unable to look anyone directly in the eyes. In particular, they are worried
about the eyes of “death’s dream kingdom.” This is the first reference to Heaven. They do not mention it
by name, but it’s clear that the souls which rise there worry them.

This is one of the best examples of Eliot tying together different images to produce a larger result. It is
unclear what each of these phrases means, from the “broken column,” perhaps a reference to the
destruction of culture, to the singing of the wind. Likely, the point Eliot was trying to get across was that
the Hollow Men are afraid of something. That something could be death, truth, or reality they are
unwilling to confront.

Stanzas Two and Three

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting

In the twilight kingdom

In the next stanzas, the speaker asks that the souls from Heaven stay away from the Hollow Men. They do
not wish to be any nearer to Heaven or to any of those whose eyes might tell them something about
themselves they don’t want to know.

This stanza ends with another interesting image. This time the men are compared in earnest to scarecrows.
They are trying to disguise themselves as something they aren’t but are quite close to actually being. The
wind moves them, just as it would a scarecrow, and they can be found in “deliberate disguises” consisting
of “crowskin” and “crossed staves.” The third stanza is only two lines and contains a plea from the men
that the “final meeting,” or God’s judgment of them in heaven, is delayed.

Section Three
Stanza One

This is the dead land

This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

The setting which hosts the Hollow Men is further described in the third section. Just as they are broken,
dry, and barren, so too is the “dead land.” It is a desert filled with cacti and “stone images.” These stones
have been raised in order to beg for Heaven’s help. It is a small gesture that seems futile underneath “the
twinkle of a fading star.” The star is very distant, far out of reach, but it still represents some kind of hope.
That is, until it finishes fading.

Stanza Two

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

The Hollow Men ask in the second stanza of the third section if “death’s other kingdom” is like theirs.
They appear to be in some kind of purgatory, between life and death. This hope is minimal, and the best
they can envision is a world where people are somewhat happier but still pray to “broken” stones.

Those in the other kingdom of death are better off, but not by much. They still walk alone at the same
time as the Hollow Men do but are not completely alone.

Section Four
Stanza One and Two

The eyes are not here

There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places

We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

In the first stanza of the fourth section, the speaker returns to the image of the eyes. They are unable to
follow men to their “ valley of death.” This references the popular Psalm 23 regarding “walking through
the valley of the shadow of death.” In this instance, though, the men do not have God to comfort them, as
the Psalm states.

Once again, one comes across the word “broken” in this stanza. In this instance, it is attached to the
phrase, “this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms.” It is unclear what Eliot intended with this line, but
perhaps it is simply connected to physical degradation and the inability to function painlessly.

In the second stanza, the group of speakers states that it is in the kingdom that they gather. It is the “last of
meeting places” where they can avoid the eyes. The men stand on the “beach of the tumid,” or swollen
“river.” The use of the word “river” connects this stanza back to the second line of the opening epigraph
concerning the River Styx. They wait without conversing for someone to take them across. At this point,
they’re stuck.

Stanza Three

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
The third stanza is a great example of Eliot’s desire to reference other literary works. This time he speaks
on the “Multifoliate rose” in Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso, the third book of The Divine Comedy. The rose
has many petals and is a stand-in for heaven. The kingdom is a rose of God’s grace, good virtues, and
angels.

It is not until the eyes come, reform themselves into a star, that the Hollow Men are going to be able to
see again. This is when their hope will truly return. The men do not seem to have the ability to get
themselves out of this situation.

Section Five
Stanza One and Two

Here we go round the prickly pear

Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea

And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

The fifth section is different than those which came before it. The stanzas are constructed in the form of a
song, perhaps sung by the Hollow Men themselves. They are singing a version of “Here we go round the
mulberry bush,” but rather than a bush, they have a “prickly pear” cactus, common to their desert
landscape. Eliot states that the men dance at “five o’clock in the morning.”

The next stanza explains that all along, the thing which has kept them from changing their own situation
was “the Shadow.” This for is undefined, but it comes “Between the idea / And the reality.” It blocks any
intentions for change the men might have. There is no way for their motions to coalesce into actions.

The line “For Thine is the Kingdom” is separated from the rest of the text. This is part of the Lord’s
Prayer but is missing the ending, “and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Eliot includes
this fragment of the prayer to show the good intentions of the men but their inability to do anything to
completion.

Stanza Three and Four

Between the conception

And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire

And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
The third and fourth stanzas of the fifth section follow a similar pattern to the second. They are other lists
of ephemeral places where “the Shadow” hides. It is between “conception / And the creation” as well as
“the desire / And the spasm.” All of these comparisons are interesting in themselves, but in general, they
bring one to the conclusion that “the Shadow” keeps the beginning from leading to the end.

In between these two stanzas is the line, “Life is very long.” This seems to be a simple expression of
exasperation over their own situation. Due to their position somewhere between life and death, “Life”
could be very long indeed. After the second stanza, there is another long line, this time the beginning of
the Lord’s Prayer. Again, the men are stymied. They can’t finish the prayer.

Stanza Five and Six

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

In the fifth stanza, Eliot uses three more fragmented lines. These are parts of the previous fragments that
appeared between the longer stanzas. They are included in order to emphasize the speakers’ broken lives.
The lines have no endings, as if the degradation of their situation is progressing even further.

The final four lines are perhaps the most famous Eliot ever wrote. They come down to the phrase, “This is
the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” The phrase is connected again to the song that
inspired the first stanza, which includes a number of phrases that begin with “This is the way….” Rather
than maintaining the song’s original happy, child-friendly tone though, the speakers sing on death.

The world does not end with huge wars, catastrophic damage, or even a literal giant explosion. Instead, it
goes out as the men do, with “a whimper.” It is a dark vision and, if not disappointing, intentionally
anti-climactic ending to the world.

"The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its
themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post–World War I Europe under the Treaty of
Versailles (which Eliot despised: compare "Gerontion"), hopelessness, religious conversion, redemption
and, some critics argue, his failing marriage with Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot.[2] It was published two
years before Eliot converted to Anglicanism.[3]

Divided into five parts, the poem is 98 lines long. Eliot's New York Times obituary in 1965 identified the
final four as "probably the most quoted lines of any 20th-century poet writing in English".[4]

Theme and context

Eliot wrote that he produced the title "The Hollow Men" by combining the titles of the romance The
Hollow Land by William Morris with the poem "The Broken Men" by Rudyard Kipling;[5] but it is
possible that this is one of Eliot's many constructed allusions. The title could also be theorized to originate
more transparently from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar or from the character Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness, who is referred to as a "hollow sham" and "hollow at the core". The latter is more
likely since Kurtz is mentioned specifically in one of the two epigraphs.

The two epigraphs to the poem, "Mistah Kurtz – he dead" and "A penny for the Old Guy", are allusions to
Conrad's character and to Guy Fawkes. Fawkes attempted arson of the English Houses of Parliament in
1605 and his straw-man effigy is burned each year in the United Kingdom on Guy Fawkes Night, the 5th
of November.[6] Certain quotes from the poem such as "[...] headpiece filled with straw [...]" and "[...] in
our dry cellar [...]"[2] seem to be direct references to the Gun Powder Plot.
The Hollow Men follows the otherworldly journey of the spiritually dead. These "hollow men" have the
realization, humility, and acknowledgement of their guilt and their status as broken, lost souls. Their
shame is seen in lines like "[...] eyes I dare not meet in dreams [...]" calling themselves "[...] sightless [...]"
and that that "[...] [death is] the only hope of empty men [...]".[2] The "hollow men" fail to transform their
motions into actions, conception to creation, desire to fulfillment. This awareness of the split between
thought and action coupled with their awareness of "death's various kingdoms" and acute diagnosis of
their hollowness, makes it hard for them to go forward and break through their spiritual sterility.[2] Eliot
invokes imagery from the Inferno, specifically the third and fourth cantos of the Inferno which describes
Limbo, the first circle of Hell – showing man in his inability to cross into Hell itself or to even beg
redemption, unable to speak with God. He states that the hollow men "[...] grope together and avoid
speech, gathered on this beach of the tumid river [...]",[2] and Dante states that at the Gates of Hell, people
who did neither good nor evil in their lives have to gather quietly by a river where Charon cannot ferry
them across.[7] This is the punishment for those in Limbo according to Dante, people who "[...] lived
without infamy or praise [...]"[7] They did not put any good or evil into the world, making them out to be
'hollow' people who can only watch others move on into the afterlife. Eliot reprises this moment in his
poem as the hollow men watch "[...] those who have crossed with direct eyes, to death's other kingdom
[...]".[2] Eliot describes how they wish to be seen "[...] not as lost/Violent souls, but only/As the hollow
men/The stuffed men [...]".[2]

As the poem enters section five, there is a complete breakdown of language. The Lord's Prayer and what
appears to be a lyric change of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" are written while this devolution
of style ends with the final stanza, maybe the most quoted of Eliot's poetry:

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.[1]

When asked in 1958 if he would write these lines again, Eliot said he would not. According to Henry
Hewes: "One reason is that while the association of the H-bomb is irrelevant to it, it would today come to
everyone's mind. Another is that he is not sure the world will end with either. People whose houses were
bombed have told him they don't remember hearing anything."[8]

Publication information
The poem was first published as now known on 23 November 1925, in Eliot's Poems: 1909–1925.[9] Eliot
was known to collect poems and fragments of poems to produce new works. This is clear to see in his
poems The Hollow Men and "Ash-Wednesday" where he incorporated previously published poems to
become sections of a larger work. In the case of The Hollow Men four of the five sections of the poem
were previously published:

● "Poème", published in the Winter 1924 edition of Commerce (with a French translation), became
Part I of The Hollow Men.[9]
● Doris's Dream Songs in the November 1924 issue of Chapbook had the three poems: "Eyes that
last I saw in tears", "The wind sprang up at four o'clock", and "This is the dead land." The third
poem became Part III of The Hollow Men.[9]
● Three Eliot poems appeared in the January 1925 issue of his Criterion magazine: "Eyes I dare not
meet in dreams", "Eyes that I last saw in tears", and "The eyes are not here". The first poem
became Part II of The Hollow Men and the third became Part IV.[9]
● Additionally, the March 1925 of Dial published The Hollow Men, I-III which was finally
transformed to The Hollow Men Parts I, II, and IV in Poems: 1909–1925.[9]
Telephone Conversation
Wole Soyinka
‘Telephone Conversation’ is a poem written by Wole Soyinka, a renowned African writer in English. The
poem exposes the presence of racial discrimination at the individual level in society even after the passing
of laws against it.

Wole Soyinka is an internationally celebrated poet from Nigeria.

Soyinka is the author of eight books of poetry, thirty plays, three novels, and many other works.

The poem is a conversation between a white woman and a black man over the telephone. The poet can
capture the essence of human interaction across racial differences. This piece of literature becomes
significant as it presents both the attitude of the white woman towards black people and the black man’s
anger towards discrimination.

Summary
‘Telephone Conversation‘, as the title suggests, is a conversation over the telephone. It is between a black
man seeking a room for rent, and a white landlady who had advertised such an offer. Over the
conversation, the hypocritical nature of the landlady as a racist is brought to light.

An African man is looking for a room to rent, and he finds an advertisement in a newspaper. The ad says
that there is no problem with race – white or black. As the man had bitter experiences with such ads
earlier, he makes a telephone call to the landlady from a public telephone booth. He tells the lady that he
is a black man and asks if it is acceptable. The lady hesitates for a while; she wants to know if he is
completely black or half black. When the man says that he is not completely black because his palms and
soles are white. The lady goes silent and hangs the phone even though the man pleads her to at least meet
him in person to see for herself if he is totally black.

The poem shows how racial discrimination prevails hidden in the hearts of individuals. Even though there
are laws against discrimination in the country, they become ineffective if individuals do not change their
mindset. The landlady shows double standards. Publicly, she shows that she is not a racist, but privately,
she shows her true attitude. The poem also captures the frustration of the black man. He is angered by the
double standards of such individuals like the landlady. First, he is angry over the lady’s questions about
his exact shade of color. Then, he becomes enraged and sees red all over. But, at the end of the telephone
conversation, he is found pleading with the landlady to consider him.
Telephone Conversation - Wole Soyinka

The price seemed reasonable, location

Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. ‘Madam,’ I warned,
‘I hate a wasted journey—I am African.’
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurised good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
‘HOW DARK ?’... I had not misheard... ‘ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK ?’ Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—
‘ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?’ Revelation came.
‘You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?’
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. ‘West African sepia’—and as afterthought,
“down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. ‘WHAT’S THAT?’ conceding
‘DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.’ ‘Like brunette.’
‘THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?’ ‘Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
Foolishly madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!’—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—‘Madam,’ I pleaded, ‘wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself ?’
ABOUT THE POET
Wole Soyinka (born 1934), is a famous Nigerian
poet and playwright. He was educated at the
Government College in Ibadan, Nigeria and, later,
at Leeds University, England, where he took a
degree in English. He taught in the London schools and
also worked in the Royal Court Theatre. He returned to
Nigeria when he was about twenty-five.
He has been one of the leading figures in Nigerian
theatre, writing a number of successful plays and also
leading a theatrical company.
He is the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for
literature (1986). His writings are known for their humour
and satire.

FFFFF Notice these expressions in the poem and guess their meaning
from the context
rancid breath squelching tar
spectroscopic flight of fancy
rearing on the thunderclap brunette
peroxide blonde clinical assent
raven black
UNDERSTANDING THE POEM
1. State the central issue in the poem.
2. There are intervals of silence in the interaction between the landlady
and the prospective tenant. What are the reasons for this?
3. How is colour highlighted in the poem and why? List all the
words in the poem that suggest colour.
4. Which are the lines in the poem that impressed you the most
and why?

Telephone Conversation Summary

Telephone Conversation is a poem about racism and the engrained mindset of certain white people who,
for whatever reason, discriminate on the grounds of race and, in particular, skin colour.
Wole Soyinka's poem takes the shape of a dialogue between two people on the telephone, an
African man and a white British landlady. The man is looking for somewhere to rent and needs a
room, apartment or flat. But for the landlady, there is an obstacle: he's black.

He knows that this fact could potentially ruin his chances of gaining accommodation, so he
preempts the prejudice and saves a wasted journey by confessing 'I am African.'

● What makes this poem special and different is the use of humour and quiet sensitivity to
explore the very serious issue of inbuilt everyday racism—how the simple act of looking
for accommodation can turn into a social disaster or moral dilemma.
● It is also written in a dramatic fashion—Wole Soyinka is both a playwright and poet,
novelist and lecturer—and has the flavour of a dialogue within the scene of a play.
● Note the use of irony and sarcasm which serves to ridicule the idea of racism and make
the landlady appear rather foolish.
● Here is a racist woman compelled to ask 'HOW DARK?' because, presumably, she had
a scale of acceptance: the lighter, the higher chances of being accepted as a tenant.
● And here is an African male tempted into answering 'You mean - like plain or milk
chocolate?' after which he describes to her several other parts of his anatomy . . . palms,
soles and bottom, ranging in their darkness and lightness from blond to raven.

Form, Poetic Device and Content

'Telephone Conversation' features a single stanza, 37 lines in total, free verse (no rhymes) and a narrative
style that is both internal, of the mind alone, and external, expressed through dialogue.

This poem is an interesting mix:

● Note the lower case and capital letters to signify inferiority and superiority, the African caller being
the former, the white landlady the latter.
● Numerous lines feature enjambment (no punctuation to stop the flow, the meaning carrying on
with momentum) and caesura (pauses halfway, roughly where the reader has to take a mini
breath).
● The conversational tone allows the awkward silences to be 'felt' by the reader.

In line 12:

OR VERY DARK?' Button B, Button A. Stench

These buttons A and B had to be pressed by the caller in old-fashioned British public pay phone booths
and boxes.

And lines 14 and 15:

Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered

Omnibus squelching tar.

All British telephone booths in the 1960s, along with pillar boxes (for the mail) and double-decker buses,
were painted bright red. Tar is the road tarmac surface.

Line-by-Line Analysis of 'Telephone Conversation' by

Wole Solyinka
Lines 1–5

The opening line takes the reader straight into an already existent conversation, the thoughts of a person
engaged in some sort of negotiation over price. Here we have someone talking to themselves, weighing
things up. The price is reasonable.

And the location—the whereabouts—is indifferent. That is an unusual word to use but rings true when
looked at objectively. Indifferent means to be free of judgement one way or the other. In light of the theme
of this poem, that has some gravitas.

It seems of importance that the landlady lived off premises. She swore, that is, she told the absolute truth
honest to God, hand on the Bible or anything else used as a touchstone in a court of law or ritual. Was
this stipulated by the caller? She must live at some other address?

OK, so there's the small matter of confessing. Confessing? Is the caller a criminal, has the caller
committed a crime already? Together with a warning.

There's a polite address . . . 'Madam' . . . the caller doesn't want to waste time and money, so is willing to
declare right now . . . 'I am African.'

Lines 6–17

There follows complete silence as the landlady's thoughts and feelings go round and round the racism
tree. The speaker uses active words to get this feeling over, coupled with class distinction for good
measure.

He (we can assume it's a he) sees the landlady, gold cigarette holder in lipsticked-mouth, her classy
gears going through the motions, pressure building. She's obviously from good-breeding (whatever that
means), in contrast to the caller, who is presumably from the common herd?

Then two little words posed as a question, holding so much baggage, centuries worth, enough to catch
him off-guard:

'HOW DARK?'

That is painful. How poor? How stupid? How tall? How small? How disabled?

This was the norm back in 1960s Britain, when it wasn't uncommon to see NO BLACKS posted up in the
windows of lodging houses and B&Bs. We know the setting is in Britain from the red telephone booth and
other very British things, like mail boxes and buses (Wole Soyinka was a student at Leeds University in
the north of England in the 1960s). The landlady's question genuinely throws him. Note the pun in line 13:
public hide-and-speak . . . a play on hide-and-seek . . . a popular game played by children and families
back in the day when hiding from someone for fun was experienced as fun. In this particular case, it is
anything but fun.

It seems the silence made him feel as if he was the one being impolite? He wants clarity, please.

Lines 18–28

To clarify, she asks again, deemed to be a considerate thing to do from the caller's perspective. (Or is he
being slightly sarcastic? I suspect the latter.)

Note the subtle difference, from HOW DARK? to ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?

The caller now sees what she is getting at. She wants an analogy and the perfect analogy is chocolate.
His question thrown back is a gem:

'You mean - like plain or milk chocolate?

She agrees, answering in the affirmative, which is yet another body-blow for the African man, because
she's so impersonal with it.

He's a quick mover, however, and arguably gains the higher ground by saying that he is 'West African
sepia' which is officially endorsed, because it's also in his passport.

There is silence again; the landlady knows not of sepia, especially that of West African origin.

Note the use of the word spectroscopic, which is a scientific term related to the colour spectrum and the
way matter interacts with electromagnetic radiation. This is a curious word to find in a poem about racism
. . . or is it?

Perhaps the caller is a student of science? Or the speaker is indirectly implying that the spectrum is
indifferent when it comes to the matter of colour. Colour simply is; we humans are the ones who attach
prejudices to it?

The African man informs the landlady that sepia is akin to brunette (French word for brown—associated
usually with brown-haired girls). There is more enlightenment to come for the well-bred landlady.

Lines 29—37

The caller explains that his face is brunette but that other parts of his anatomy are not. In fact, the palms
of his hand and soles of his feet are lighter . . . peroxide blond! Peroxide is a chemical used to turn hair
really blond, bleached.

And he goes further, much further. He sarcastically admits to sitting down and that this causes his bottom
(bum, ass, posterior) to turn raven black. Oh dear, this has a direct affect on the unfortunate landlady, and
he senses her unease. She will soon clang the solid plastic receiver head down and hurt his ears.

But before he's cut off completely, he just manages to suggest that she herself should see with her own
eyes . . . see his face, his palms, his soles, his . . . well, the idea is clear and some would say, ironically
comical. In a nutshell, the caller has turned the tables on racist bias and, with a mix of humour, moral
stance and arguably charm, shown up the landlady for what she is . . . a racist, pure and simple.
Form and Structure
Wole Soyinka’s ‘Telephone Conversation’ is a lyric poem written in free verse. The poem is a dialogue
involving a black man and a white woman. The two are indulged in a phone call throughout the poem.
The poem to a considerable extent follows the question and answer pattern. That is, the white landlady
fires away one question after another and the black man, who is desperate for a place to stay, patiently
answers them all. Also, a major chunk of the poem is written in the present tense.

Literary Techniques
Although ‘Telephone Conversation’ appears to be a short and simple poem, it is layered; and therefore,
complex due to the techniques used in it. The techniques used, in terms of the use of language, make the
ultimate message of the poem heard loud and clear. It does the same without deviating from its focus and
neither does it give room to ambiguity. On one hand, for the most part, Soyinka uses repetition for
emphasizing the idea of the practice of racism by the so-called elites. The words “dak” “light” and “red”
which are often used in the poem could be cited as examples for repetition used for emphasizing racism.
On the other hand, the use of words describing colors and shades serves as a reminder of the prevalence
of racism in the white society where everything light and very light represents the upper class, and
everything dark and very dark represents the lower class.

Detailed Analysis
Lines 1-5

The price seemed reasonable, location

Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. ‘Madam,’ I warned,
‘I hate a wasted journey—I am African.’

Telephone Conversation in the first five lines brings up the issue of race. A black man who is looking for a
room for rent finds an offer at a reasonable price in the advertisements. He makes a phone call to the
landlady of the property and confesses that he is a black man. The opening line shows that the black man
is aware of the double standards. He makes a phone call to confirm if the room is truly available for a
black man. It also reveals that the black man has had bitter experiences in the past. He must have
believed the ‘no difference’ point in the advertisements and must have approached the landowners. They
should have refused him after coming to know that he is black.

Lines 6-11
 Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurised good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
(…)
‘HOW DARK ?’… I had not misheard… ‘ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK ?’ Button B. Button A. Stench

These lines in the poem, ‘Telephone Conversation,’ describe the reaction of the landlady when she hears
the confession. When she comes to know that a speaker is a black man, she goes silent. She does not
reveal her true dislike and disapproval for black people. The poet says that the lady is like the so-called
white people of good breeding. These people call themselves educated and therefore decent. They do
not speak out against black people, but they continue to harbor racial prejudice towards black people. The
black man can stereotype the white landlady just by hearing her voice over the telephone. He imagines
that her lips must be painted red with lipstick, and she must be smoking and using a gold-tinted cigarette
lighter. The poet reveals that both white and black people show prejudice because they tend to stereotype
people.

The landlady is careful in not using the taboo word, ‘black’. Instead, she asks an indirect question on the
degree of darkness. To the black man, it appears as if he is asked to make a choice. He wonders if he
should press ‘Button A’, or ‘Button B’ in the telephone dial pad much like he would do to choose a
language over an automated call. These lines in the poem expose the hypocritical nature of white
individuals in society.

Lines 12-16

Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.

(…)
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.

These lines of the poem, ‘Telephone Conversation’ describe the reaction of the black man on hearing the
lady’s question. He can smell the bad breath of hypocrisy. White people hide their racial discrimination in
public but they practice it in private. The double standard behavior angers the black man. He sees red in
his eyes. The telephone booth, the pillars, a bus passing by, all appear red to him. But the black man also
agrees that the lady should be considered polite. She was considerate of putting the question gently.
However, the black man looks at such racial discrimination as oppressing. He compares it with a
double-decker omnibus squelching the black tar on the road.

Lines 17-24

Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—

‘ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?’ Revelation came.
(…)
“down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent
These lines of the poem, ‘Telephone Conversation,’ describe how the black man describes himself. He
tells that he is a West African. In a way, he is also not ready to use the word, ‘black’. But he tells her that
he is black indirectly. This expression of the black man reveals how he hesitates to declare himself black
even though he is ready to confess that he is an African. He brings the terminology used in his passport
as evidence and support. This shows that he is also not ready to accept that he is black. Numerous bitter
experiences of racial discrimination must have made the black man vary.

Lines 25-30

Hard on the mouthpiece. ‘WHAT’S THAT?’ conceding

(…)
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—

These lines of the poem, ‘Telephone Conversation’, shows how the different shades of the black man’s
color are being discussed. While the black man says that he is not completely black, the landlady willingly
calls brunet as dark. The black man tries to explain that the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet
are not black. But the landlady is not ready to listen to him. The black man comes up with a poor excuse
for sitting for a long time as the reason for the blackness of his backside. He is even ready to come up
with a reason for his black ears. This shows how the black man is desperate to get a room for rent. He is
made to apologize for being black. He is forced to endure the shame of his color.

Lines 31-35

Foolishly madam—by sitting down, has turned

My bottom raven black—One moment madam!’—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—‘Madam,’ I pleaded, ‘wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself ?’

The concluding lines of the poem, Telephone Conversation, describes the land lady’s action and the
man’s position. On hearing that the man is black, the lady wants to confirm it. On confirming the man’s
blackness, the lady hangs the telephone indicating that she is not ready to do business with a black
person. The black man confesses that he is an African but he tells that he is not completely black. He
describes how some of his body parts are not totally black. As the poem comes to an end, the black man
appears to plead for a chance. He asks the landlady to meet him in person before coming to a decision.
But the landlady refuses any further dealing with the man, once she confirms that he was black.

Central Theme
In this poem, ‘Telephone Conversation’, Wole Soyinka exposes the prevalence of racial discrimination in
society regardless of the stringent laws against it. He brings to light how it is practiced covertly by many
white people. He highlights the hypocritical nature of these people in the poem. Through a simple
telephone conversation, the poet provides an insightful observation on how the racially discriminating
society functions.
A River
A. K. Ramanujan
‘A River’ by A.K. Ramanujan focuses on the Madurai River, how it has been depicted by poets throughout
time, and brings the suffering that exists along its banks to the reader’s attention.

A.K. Ramanujan is remembered as a playwright, folklorist, and translator.

Ramanujan wrote in numerous genres and in both English and Kannada.

This short, four-stanza poem is separated into uneven sets of lines. The first stanza of ‘A River’ contains
sixteen lines, the second: eleven, the third: seven, and the fourth: fifteen. They do not follow a specific
rhyme scheme, but there are moments of repetition which help create rhythm.

Most clearly, there is a refrain that is used in the second stanza and the fourth and is only slightly
changed. The speaker describes what happened during this particular flood, and then restates the same
thing. This works in two ways, first to emphasize the loss. But, at the same time, it also desensitizing the
reader. One comes to expect tragedy, as those who reside in the city do, and see it as another aspect of
the flood/drought.

Summary
‘A River’ by A.K. Ramanujan describes how poets of the past and present have romanticized a river in
Madurai.

The poem begins with the speaker stating that every year, every poet sings the same songs about the
sometimes flooding, and sometimes empty riverbed. When it is empty, all its hidden items are exposed.
The poets have always sung about this period and the other in which the flood happens. But, they don’t
get into the details of who is impacted.

In the next stanzas, the speaker relays the words of the citizens of this area as they describe what
happened this year. Houses were washed away, as were two cows and a woman who thought she was
pregnant with twins. The speaker derides the old and new poets for not caring enough to look deeper into
their environments.
A River
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.

He was there for a day

when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carried off three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.

The new poets still quoted

the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her,
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.
He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
and then
it carries away
in the first half-hour
three village houses,
a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda
and one pregnant woman
expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.

Summary of A River
● Popularity of “A River”: Written by A. K. Ramanujan, “A River” is a free verse poetic
output first appeared in 1966. It was part of his collection of poems The Striders. The
poem is written in simple language and talks about the exploration of the cultural and
spiritual significance of an Indian river as a symbol of life, death, and renewal in Indian
mythology, and society has brought this poem everlasting fame for the poet. That is why
the poem has become a textbook piece across the globe.
● “A River” As a Representative of the Natural Lifecycle: The poem “A River” reflects
the complexities of the cultural, social, and spiritual heritage of India to shed light on the
natural lifecycle. Ramanujan, born and raised in India, seems to celebrate his ability to
touch on his native culture in his poem ‘A River.’ He goes on to present Indian mythology
and folklore to explore the deep significance of the river in the Indian social atmosphere.
The poem not only speaks to the beauty and power of the river as a natural force but
also delves into the various symbolic meanings it holds for the Indian people. As such,
“A River” is a powerful example of how Indian English literature, too, is rich and fertile to
use as textbook pieces.
● Major Themes in “A River”: “A River” focuses on several thematic strands, such as the
contrast between the beauty of the river and its destructive power, the natural lifecycle
associated with water sources, and the place of a river in the Indian culture. The poem is
set in Madurai, a city of temples, where poets sing of the urban beauty, history, and
place and yet ignore the river that devastates the city every year when it floods. The
river, thus, seems like a force of nature that could be both beautiful and dangerous.
During the dry season, the river dries up and exposes the sand ribs, straws, and
women’s hair that clog the watergates. However, during the floods, the river becomes a
 destructive force, carrying away village houses, cows, and even pregnant women. The
poem indicates the limitations of language in capturing the complexity of human
experiences. While the old poets celebrated the floods as a natural phenomenon, the
new poets kept their mum about the tragic loss of life. The disparity between poetic
language and reality emerges out of the beauty of poetic diction when the poem
mentions the pregnant woman as a tragic victim of the floods. The poet concludes that
the river is only poetic when it is in flood, but the reality is that floods could be
devastating.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in A River

1. K. Ramanujan’s skill of using multiple and diverse literary devices is quite apparent in “A
River.” He used various literary devices to enhance the intended impact of this poem.
Some of the major literary devices are analyzed below.
2. Allusion: It is a reference to a place, event, figure, or thing of historical, cultural, or
religious significance. The poem mentions an unnamed and the city of “Madurai” which
are allusions to Indian geography and myths.
3. Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within words, such as line 27 shows the use
of “Gopi and Brinda” (line 27), repeating /i/ sound to add to the music of the poem.
4. Consonance: It is the repetition of the consonant sounds in words occurring close in
verse. For example, the sound of /s/ repeats in the third verse, “who sang of cities and
temples” and /b/ in “baring the sand ribs.”
5. Enjambment: It is the continuation of a sentence or thought without a pause beyond the
end of a line or stanza. For example, lines 3 and 4 moves to the 5th without any pause of
punctuation or line break. This sentence flows smoothly from one line to another without
a pause, enhancing the continuity of the image being described.
6. Imagery: It means the use of vivid and descriptive language that appeals to the senses.
For example, the line 13 “the wet stones glistening like sleepy crocodiles” shows images
that come into mind when reading it.
7. Irony: It is a contrast between what is expected and what actually happens. For
example, line 16 “The poets only sang of the floods” (line 16) shows the irony lies in the
fact that the poets focus only on the floods, while other significant events, such as the
drowning of a pregnant woman, go unnoticed.
8. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things.
For example, the line “the dry ones shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun” (line 15)
shows that the metaphor of the dry stones is likened to water buffaloes, emphasizing
their appearance and creating a visual image.
9. Personification: It gives human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
For example, line 36 “the river has water enough to be poetic” (line 36) shows the river
as having human qualities of writing poetry.
10. Repetition: It is the deliberate use of words, sounds, or phrases for emphasis or effect.
For example, the lines 31 and 45 show the repetition of “of the pregnant woman,”
drawing the attention of the readers to her significance in the narrative.
 11. Simile: It is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things using
“like” or “as.” For example, line 13 “the wet stones glistening like sleepy crocodiles”
shows the comparison of the glistening stones to sleepy crocodiles, highlighting their
appearance and creating a vivid image.
12. Symbolism: This is the use of objects or actions to represent abstract ideas or
concepts. The poem shows of several such things, such as a village, river, twins,
diapers, and even walls, as symbols of life and death.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in A River

Poetic devices are part of literary devices with different functions. They help writers and poets to
develop themes and add further to their poems. The analysis of some of the poetic devices
used in this poem is as follows.

1. Diction: It is the choice and use of words in a literary work. “A River” shows the use of a
simple direct language with concrete images to evoke the scene of a river drying up in
the summer and causing flood in the rainy season.
2. End Rhyme: This is the repetition of similar sounds at the end of lines in a poem. “A
River” does not have a regular end rhyme scheme.
3. Poem and Verse Type: “A River” is a free verse poem, which means it does not follow a
strict pattern of meter or rhyme.
4. Stanza: “A River” has four short stanzas, each having a different number of verses.
5. Tone: It is the attitude or feeling conveyed by a literary work. “A River” shows an
objective and detached tone as the poet describes the natural phenomenon of a river
drying up and flooding without passing judgment or expressing emotion.

Quotes to be Used
This quote is suitable to use when discussing the limitations of art and literature and how they
can sometimes fail to capture the full range of human experience.

The poets only sang of the floods.

Poetic Techniques
Ramanujan also uses a variety of poetic techniques, such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, and
enjambment to unify the text. Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear
close together, and begin with the same letter. Assonance and consonance are other forms of repetition in
which a vowel or consonant sound is used multiple times, in words that close in proximity. A few of these
are noted with the body of the text.
Enjambment is another important technique. This occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping
point. It forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One is forced to move forward in
order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. A great example is between lines four and five in
which a reader has to move down a line to find out what summer brings.

All of these techniques contribute to the speaker’s tone. It fluctuates back and forth between
disappointed, analytical, and even lighthearted at times.

Analysis of A River
Stanza One

In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
(…)
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.

In the first stanza of this piece, the speaker begins by setting the scene. He is going to be describing how
the city of “Madurai” is described by poets. It is a place that is made up of “temples and poets” and these
poets have always sung of the same things. Every summer in the city the river basin is emptied. The river
“dries to a trickle” and the sand is bared. The shapes and objects that are revealed are dark and
somewhat ominous. The are “sand ribs” and “straw and women’s hair”. These things clog up the
“watergates,” made of rusty bars.

Ramanujan makes use of consonance in these lines with the repetition of the “g” sound. Rhythm is also
created through the use of reuse of the word “sand” in lines six and seven. Then, in general, the repetition
of words beginning of “s,” or words that carry the “s” sound. This is especially true for the first half of the
stanza.

Everything about the drainage system is old and in need of repair. The bridge is in patches, a fact that is
revealed when the waters recede. In the last lines of this stanza, Ramanujan uses two metaphors to
compare the stones to animals. The wet ones appear like crocodiles sleeping and the dry as lounging
water-buffaloes. Despite all of this, the poets “only sang of the floods.” There is so much more to the city
that the poets are ignoring.

Stanza Two

He was there for a day

when they had the floods.
(…)
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.

The second stanza of ‘A River’ is only eleven lines. The “He” in the first line is a reference to a poet,
perhaps the speaker himself. He states that he was only in the city for “a day”. It is in this stanza that a
number of the more complicated and personal details are revealed. The details were not hidden, they
were easily learned by the poet featured in this stanza.

Everywhere the people spoke about the flood and the terrible things which resulted. It is not just a simple
natural occurrence. It “carried off three village houses” as well as a pregnant woman and “a couple of
cows”. The cows have names, making these lines lighter in tone than some of the others. The list-like way
in which this section of the poem is conveyed makes it clear that these are not uncommon occurrences.
The people are used to them.

Stanza Three

The new poets still quoted

the old poets, but no one spoke
(…)
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.

The problem that the speaker has with poets is made clearer in the third stanza of ‘A River’ as he speaks
of the similarities between “old poets” and “new poets”. Both spoke about the floods, yet ignored the
tragedies which resulted. In fact, to make it worse, the new poets copied what the old ones did. There
was no evolution in style or subject.

In the fifth and sixth lines of this section, the speaker states that it is possible that the woman who died
was going to give birth to twins, increasing the life lost. This is a very interesting contrast to the flooding of
the river in the first place. The waters are meant to fertilize the land and make it possible for the next crop
to grow. Life is destroyed as it is being created.

Stanza Four

He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
(…)
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.

In the final stanza, the speaker relays the words of the poet again. He said that the poet complained of
how “the river has water enough / to be poetic / about only once a year”. It is only once a year that the
poets pay attention to it, and even then they don’t want to speak about the loss of property or life.

The speaker repeats a section of the second stanza again, restating what was lost. There are additional
details added. Now, he says that the woman believed she was “expecting identical twins”. They were
going to be perfectly the same, with no way to tell them apart except through dressing them in “coloured
diapers”. This is another humorous line, but it has a darker undertone. It speaks to the lack of care with
which the poets approached the land and people. There is no desire to know who these people are or
quest to adequately depict their suffering.
 ● Rhyme scheme: XabcdebfXbbXXbgb hbijajbbgbd ekagcbX eXkfghcbbXgbbbi
● Stanza lengths (in strings): 16,11,7,15,
● Closest metre: iambic trimeter
● Сlosest rhyme: limerick
● Сlosest stanza type: sonnet
● Guessed form: unknown form
● Metre: 0100 10010110 11010110 10010 01010010 001 10011 11101 1001000 10101 10010010
0011100 011100110 101011 101010010001 010101001 111101 11101 101011 001010
0001100101 110101010 101010 101010111010 11010 101001 1101101100 0110110 01101111 01
001010 1001100 10111 10011 11 01011001 00010 0110101 11 01001 001110 11010 01001
110110 111010 01001001 0111110 010010100 01001
● Amount of stanzas: 4
● Average number of symbols per stanza: 298
● Average number of words per stanza: 55
● Amount of lines: 49
● Average number of symbols per line: 23 (strings are less long than medium ones)
● Average number of words per line: 4
● Mood of the speaker:
The punctuation marks are various. Neither mark predominates.

The Listeners/ The Traveller

By Walter de La Mare

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller’s call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
 ’Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,’ he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Source: The Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare (1979)

"The Listeners" by Walter de la Mare

"The Listeners" is one of the best-known and most-often-read poems by the English poet and short story
writer, Walter de la Mare. De la Mare wrote this piece at the early peak of his literary career, in the year
1912. It was published in his third collection of poetry, entitled The Listeners and Other Poems. The title of
the poem refers to a group of mysterious figures, who are portrayed as silent, otherworldly recipients of
the main character's repeated calls. Because of the presence of only one concrete, yet unnamed
character throughout, referred to as the Traveller, this poem is also called "the Traveller poem."

"The Listeners" Summary

There are two main characters in "The Listeners": the Traveller and the "phantom listeners." The first
character, namely the Traveller, once visited a deserted house amidst a forest on a moonlit night. He
knocked at the door twice in the hope of getting a response. While he waited, his horse moved around,
munching at the grass. At this point, the reader can sense the striking contrast between the movements of
the outside world and the imposing stillness of the house, where the listeners resided. By the end, the
Traveller knocked again, but this time harder than his previous attempts, and informed the insiders that he
had kept his promise. Then, mounting his horse, he rode back to where he came. Read the full text of de
la Mare's poem below.

The Listeners
Walter de la Mare
‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare describes the actions of a Traveller who knocks at the door of a
seemingly deserted home at night.

Walter de la Mare was born in April 1873 in England.

His poetry has been praised for its consideration of themes like dreams and complex states of mind.

‘The Listeners’ was published in 1912 in de la Mare’s second collection. It is one of his most popular
poems and touches on many of the themes and content that the poet is remembered for. He was fond of
writing ghost stories, many of which are seen in Eight Tales as well as On the Edge and The Wind Blows
Over.
Summary
‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare describes the actions of a Traveller who knocks on at the door of a
seemingly deserted home at night.

The poem begins with the speaker designing the Traveller and his horse. They are at the door of a house
on which the Traveller is knocking. He is expecting to be greeted by someone, but no one answers his
calls. The narrative moves inside the house where a certain presence resides. There are “phantoms”
within the empty building. They “listen” well to the Traveller.

The Traveller can, to some extent, sense them there. He calls out a number of strange phrases that add
to the mystery of the poem, and then finally leaves without an answer.

Themes
There are several interesting themes in ‘The Listeners’. These include the unknown and the supernatural
as well as isolation and solitude. This mysterious poem touches on all these themes while more broadly
speaking on the strangeness of the world and humankind’s inability to fully understand it. The poem itself
is unknowable, keeping the reader far from the real identity of the listeners or what they mean. De la Mare
creates a creepy landscape every element of which is seemingly untouched but also deeply strange. The
traveler is forced to navigate this world on his own.

Structure and Form

‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare is a thirty-six line poem which is contained within one block of text.
The piece follows a consistent pattern of rhyme in the scheme of, abcbdefe, and so on, changing end
sounds as the poet saw fit. De la Mare chose to create rhyming pairs that are separated by un-rhyming
lines. This allows the poem to maintain a certain amount of unity without falling into sing-song like pattern.
Considering that the tone is melancholy throughout, this was a useful choice.

In regards to the rhythm chosen by de la Mare, it is anapestic in nature. This means that there are two
unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. It creates a feeling of anxiety in a piece that adds an
additional layer to the overwhelming theme of loneliness.
Literary Devices
Throughout ‘The Listeners’ Walter de la Mare uses several different literary devices. These include but
are not limited to enjambment, anaphora, and imagery. The latter is one of the most important devices
that’s used in the poem. it can be seen throughout as the poet describes the landscape and the traveler’s
experience.

Enjambment is seen through the transitions between lines. For example, between lines ten and eleven.
Anaphora is another formal device that’s seen through the repetition of words at the beginning of lines.
For example, “And” in lines five and seven as well as thirty-four and thirty-five

Analysis of The Listeners

Lines 1-8
‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
(…)
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

In the first stanza of this piece the speaker, who does not play a physical role in this narrative, reports the
speech of a “Traveller.” Rather than acting as a character in this story a speaker is a third person,
semi-omniscient narrator. He is able to look down on the action and report it back to the reader.

The Traveler is knocking on a door at night. Space is said to be lit by “moonli[ght]” and filled with silence.
These few describing phrases paint an immediate picture of the scene. A reader will be able to imagine
the door, the sky, and the sound of the “horse” as it “champed the grasses.” This sound would be
deafening in the silence.

The reader should feel the tense expectations of the Traveler as he waits to see if someone will open the
door. The noise of the horse’s hooves on the ground is emphasized by the fact that they are standing on
“the forest’s ferny floor.”

The environment they are in is covered in plants. This leads a reader to the supposition that the Travellers
is not somewhere very industrialized. The landscape is primarily natural. As if hoping to prove this is the
case, a bird is described as flying out of the “turret.”

So far the reader has only gotten a few details about the structure on which the Traveller is knocking. It is
out in the woods and it has a “turret” or tower. This leads one to believe that it is a large building or even a
castle-like home. There is an overwhelming sense of mystery in these opening lines. This comes partially
from the fact that the poem begins in medias res, or in the middle of the scene. There has been no
introduction or explanation for what is occurring.
The Traveller decides that he will “smote upon the door again.” In this context “smote” means to strike
with force. He is not being tentative about his desire to gain entry into the building. Again the Traveller
calls out,

‘Is there anybody there?’

This proves that although the Traveller might be confident enough to knock hard on the door, he is still
unsure about whether or not there is actually anyone home.

Lines 9-16

In the second set of lines, the speaker describes how there is no one there to greet the Traveller. He
waits, but no one “descend[s].” In a line that proves that the abode is somewhere in the woods, the
speaker states that,

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Leaned over

The window that the traveler would expect the resident of the home to appear in, remains empty. There is
still no sign that anyone is present inside the building or willing to let him in. A reader is also given the
additional detail of the Traveller’s eyes being “grey.” They portray his emotions well. He is now
“perplexed” by his situation. Perhaps he had some reason to expect that there would be someone there.
The Traveller remains “still” standing where he is.

He is still waiting, expectantly. But there is nothing to be heard. The only others present are the,

[…] phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

These lines make clear that the house is in fact empty. There is no one inside ignoring the Traveller’s
knocking and shouting. This section also emphasizes the solitary nature of the moment. The traveler is
completely alone, aside from his horse. No one can even hear his voice.

Lines 17-24

At approximately the halfway point of this piece the speaker returns to the image of the “phantoms” that
he sees as being the only inhabitants of the house. They move through the “empty hall” and take to the
stairs as any normal residents would. These ghostly images do not make an impact on their world. They
are unable to respond to the “Traveller’s call,” although they can hear it. The air around them is “stirred
and shaken” by the sounds he makes.
The narrative returns to the heart of the traveler. He suddenly feels strange, as if he knows there are
“phantoms” inside who are listening to his words. It is the quiet of the house that “answer[s] his cry.” This
fact inspires him to try again.

Lines 25-32

The speaker “smote on the door” once more. This time with more force. He makes his knocks “Louder.”
After, he lifts his head up to the window that was mentioned in a previous line and calls out. The words he
speaks increase the mystery of the entire narrative. He asks that the presence he feels inside the house
“Tell them I came.” As one would expect there is no answer. He follows this up another phrase, “That I
kept my word.”

There is no revelatory statement following up these odd words to explain the situation. This is both a
negative and a positive. While one’s personal curiosity will not be sated, one is able to craft any narrative
they want on top of de la Mare’s.

The final lines of this section describe how the words “he spake” fell through

[…] the shadowiness of the still house

The sounds are reaching no one with the capacity to respond to them. They dissolve into the shadows.

Lines 33-36

In the final four lines, the speaker returns to the “phantom” or “phantoms” who are listening. By the time
the Traveller leaves the front of the house, there is only one “man left awake.” This single listener took
note of the Traveller’s “foot upon the stirrup” of his saddle. The phantom heard the passing of the silence
as the man moved away until there was nothing.

Readers of this piece are left to wonder what exactly happened in the last thirty-six lines. There are a
number of different interpretation which could be posed. Perhaps those who the speaker came to see
have passed on and are now the “phantoms” watching silently inside.

Those the Traveller was seeking out could’ve moved on to another location, leaving behind remnants of
themselves or allowing other entities to take up residence there.

Beyond these literal interpretations is a general theme of loneliness. The Traveller is in a solitary state
throughout the piece and the forces inside the house represent loneliness in their very being.

Similar Poetry
In the same vein as ‘The Listeners’ are other poems such as ‘Astrophobos’ by H.P. Lovecraft, ‘The Black
Heralds‘ by César Vallejo ‘The Vampire’ by Conrad Aiken, and ‘The Witch’ by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge.
Each of these poems deals with the unknown and the supernatural in a different way. They all raise
questions for the reader that go unanswered by the end of the poem while also dealing with imagery that
is certainly unnerving.

The Listeners | Analysis

Walter De La Mare was well-known for his eerie and darkly romantic writing style, often centered
around death, ghosts or spiritual elements. The Listeners touches upon these components through
themes of loneliness, solitude, and interpretable supernaturalism. The third-person narrative provides
scope to switch between the two main characters’ situations- the Traveller and the ‘phantom listener’. The
purposeful vagueness of the piece provides room for interpretation, but the use of certain words, refrains
and illustrious phrases anchors the reader to a certain direction– here, that direction being an aura of
strangeness and melancholy. The poet uses strong imagery to create sinister, dark depictions. The
description of the ‘phantom listener’ and the ‘man left awake’ leads to a slight vagueness which adds to
the intended peculiarity of the piece. An important aspect is the almost open ending to the poem– we
do not know why the traveller has arrived at the house, nor whether the listeners are spirits or ghosts or
people, nor what the Traveler’s promise was, and we do not find out. But the illustrious account, which
paints a clear picture in the readers’ minds, opens a door for an expounding of themes and an
openness to mysterious emotions.

The poem begins with a setting of the scene and situation– the Traveller, knocking on a door and
saying, “Is there anybody there?” The phrase ‘moonlit door’ signifies that it is nighttime, and the horse
chewing the grass of the ‘forest’s ferny floor’ paints the image of a deserted house in the middle of the
forest in the darkness. With the very name ‘the Traveller’ and the accompaniment of a horse, we can
see that someone has journeyed to this destination, looking for someone. The poet employs imagery
from the very beginning, using subtle detail rather than direct information to describe the scene- for
example, saying that the bird ‘flew out from the turret over the traveller’s head’ is a rather roundabout but
effective way of describing the building. The readers now know that it has the turret. The picture of a
single bird flying out of the house and over the travellers head also builds up a tense expectation of
what is to come.

The Traveller then ‘smote’ or knocks on the door a second time, as there was no answer the first time.
This lack of response is a key point in this poem. Note the refrain, as he once more asks “Is there
anybody there?” We get a better understanding of the surroundings as well as the Travellers’ appearance
within the next few lines-

“But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,

where he stood perplexed and still.”

This is an intelligent slipping-in of finer attributes to a broader plot– the poet takes the opportunity of
explaining the silence to describe the ‘leaf-fringed sill’ and mention the Traveller has grey eyes. He also
makes the readers aware- for the first time- of how the Traveller feels in this situation- confused due to
the lack of answer, and ‘still’ which signifies the edginess that comes from a strange, deserted
surrounding.

We are now introduced to the other side of the coin: the phantom listeners. The poet says that they
were the only ones listening to the Traveller as they ‘dwelt in the lone house.’ The use of the word
‘lone’ signifies that the house was, in fact, otherwise empty- it raises the question about the phantom
listeners. The name itself suggests a supernatural element- rather than just ‘listener’ or ‘quiet person’,
why mention the word phantom? This is what leads the readers to believe it may be a sort of spirit or
ghost that lurks the house. This is further reiterated with the next line: “To that voice from the world of
men.” The suggestion that the Traveller’s voice comes from a different ‘world’ altogether may signify the
separation between the earthly world and the supernatural one.

As the lines continue to depict the phantom listener in the empty house, listening to the traveller’s call, we
see the highlighted theme of loneliness and solitude come to fore. In the line “Stood thronging the
faint moonbeams on the dark stair, that goes down to the empty hall, hearkening in an air stirred and
shaken by the lonely Traveller’s call”, the phrases ‘empty hall’ and ‘lonely Traveller’ do more than just stir
the emotion of the poem- they add to the overall tone, calling attention to one similarity between the
Traveller and the phantom listener, though their paths do not cross more than this: they are both
alone. The phantom listener, dwelling about the empty, dark house and the Traveller, journeying through
the deserted forest. These elements set a mysterious and unpredictable mood to the piece.

Following this, we can see that the Traveller starts to feel the ‘strangeness’ of the silence. This is more
than just feeling confused or awkward because he receives no answer- the ‘strangeness’ shows that he
can feel the presence of something unusual. It is different from not receiving a response because
nobody is there- the Traveller may sense the phantom listener, but would not clearly know the reason for
this strange feeling.

It may be this inexplicable knowledge that there is something peculiar– whether it is able to respond
or not- listening to him, that inspires him to leave his final message despite the absence of any
acknowledgement or answer: “‘Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word,’ he said.”
The interesting thing about this dialogue is that we receive no further explanation on who ‘they’ are or
what the ‘promise’ is. It ties into the fact that this poem did not start at a specific beginning of a story- we
do not know who the Traveller really is, why he is journeying, where he is heading. It simply starts with a
knock on a door, which is an unexplained midpoint.

The Traveller’s loud voice and knocking does not receive a response, as is expected by this point.
However, the introduction of the phantom listeners, as well as the traveller’s unknown promise and the
other-worldly imagery, form an ominous feeling in the reader. They do not know what exactly is
happening, nor do they know what will happen next, but there is a rattling sensation caused by
unanswered questions in peculiar situations. “Never the least stir made the listeners, though every
word he spake, fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house from the one man left awake”- this
phrase ‘echoing through the shadows’ is significant here, because it suggests that somebody is
listening. The ‘shadows’ may symbolise the supernatural listener, while “least stir” means there was no
reaction, indicating that this phantomic presence, despite hearing everything, is unable to respond.
This assumption only grows stronger with the line “the one man left awake.” Here, we may draw the
inference of a spirit or ghost of sorts– the man ‘left awake’ may be the soul of one who previously
lived in that house and was left to roam within its confines after the living being passed away, hence the
term ‘left awake.’ A restless dwelling of an unpeaceful soul.

That phantom listener heard everything till the very end- the poet describes the “foot upon the stirrup, And
the sound of iron on stone, and how the silence surged softly backward, when the plunging hoofs were
gone.” signaling that the traveller had fulfilled his purpose, mounted his horse, and departed. We may
assume that the Traveller’s journey to the house was to meet someone to whom he had promised
something- possibly a return, or a reunion. However, the eerie silence he received in response
signifies the emptiness of the area- either that person has left and moved on, or passed away and his
spirit occupies the place he once lived. The latter seems more accurate due to the use of various
supernatural vocabulary, dark imagery and descriptions of peculiarity.

The poet’s multiple depictions of silence, still air and deserted area creates an air of loneliness. We
may assume all of these elements to be symbolic of the same– on further interpretation, it could be the
loneliness of a soul after death. Another point to note is that the Traveller’s continuous calls were
simply screams into a vast silence, which can signify great solitude- the feeling of speaking into
nothingness, of nobody responding. Of being ignored by even those who hear the voice and the refusal
to engage in a conversation. The desolate location also highlights the feeling of isolation– the house
being in an obsolete place with seemingly no other civilization, the lone bird flying over the Traveller’s
head. There is no clear explanation as to the Traveller’s purpose, but as he gallops away at the end, we
cannot shake off the feeling of melancholic abnormality and wonder at this mysterious, almost
one-sided interaction. Rather than an answer, we are left with more questions and a strong,
emotional unnaturalness.

Summary of The Listeners

● Popularity of “The Listeners”: The Listeners was written by Walter de La Mare, an English
novelist, writer, and poet. It is a superb poem that was published in 1912. The popularity of the
poem lies in its supernatural qualities and down-to-earth versification that shows de La Mare’s
mastery over the fascinating mystery.
● “The Listeners” As a Representative of Supernatural Elements:” The anonymous traveler
shown knocking at the door of some building in the night lightened up with the moonlight. His
horse starts grazing on the grass when a bird flies out of the turret, making the situation and
environment mysterious. Getting no response, the traveler knocks again but stands puzzled as he
does not get a response to his repeated knocks. Some ghosts, though, peep out as if they want
to respond to his knocking, but he meets deathly silence outside. After this, he continues beating
the door without getting any response, and then he calls out that he has kept his promise. When
the words echoing in the darkness of the night, the ghosts listen to the sounds of the hoofs of his
horse taking the traveler away from the house.
 ● Major Themes in “The Listeners”: Mysterious atmosphere, imaginary ghosts, and romantic
situations are three major thematic strands of the poem. The poem has shown that only a night
and the presence of a building are enough to create a mysterious atmosphere having
supernatural elements. There is no information about the traveler, the location, his journey, the
purpose, and the promise. Yet the creation of the imaginary ghosts disturbed at his call and
knocking makes the poem worth reading for the readers, specifically for those who love the
mysterious atmosphere of a romance where a traveler leaves a hint that he has kept some
promise he has made a long time ago.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in The Listeners

Literary devices are techniques that writers use to convey their ideas, feelings, and message to the
readers. Walter also has used various literary devices to enhance the intended impacts of his poem.
Some of the major literary devices are analyzed below.

1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the
sound of /o/ and /oo/ in “Knocking on the moonlit door.”
2. Alliteration: It is the use of successive consonant sounds in the initials of the successive words.
For example, the sound of /f/ in “forest’s ferny floor” and /h/ in “his horse.”
3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example,
the sound of /s/ in “And his horse in the silence champed the grasses”, /n/ in “Leaned over and
looked into his grey eye” and the sound of /s/ and /l/ in “Stood listening in the quiet of the
moonlight.”
4. Deus Ex Machina: The appearance and mention of the ghosts in the poem show the appropriate
use of deus ex machina.
5. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break;
rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example,

Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken

By the lonely Traveller’s call.

6. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For
example, “Their stillness answering his cry”, “Neath the starred and leafy sky” and “Louder, and
lifted his head.”
7. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects
that are different. The poem shows the use of the metaphors of atmosphere, ghosts, and man.
8. Personification: The poet used silence, shadowiness, and stillness as if they have emotions and
a life of their own.
9. Rhetorical Questions: The poem shows the use of rhetorical questions such as “‘Is there
anybody there?’ said the Traveller, / Knocking on the moonlit door” used twice in the poem.
10. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from literal meanings. Here the night, the stillness, the traveler, and
the ghosts are symbols of mystery and supernatural elements.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in The Listeners

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some
of the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Rhyme Scheme: The poem shows the rhyme scheme of ABCB in all of its thirty-six verses.
2. Repetition: The poem shows the repetition of a rhetorical question “‘Is there anybody there?’”
twice in it. It intensifies the mysteriousness of the situation.

Quotes to be Used
These lines show their relevance to the quote when telling the audience that someone has not come but
the speaker has arrived as promised.

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:—
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,
My Heart Leaps Up/ The Rainbow
By William Wordsworth

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Summary of My Heart Leaps Up

● Popularity of “My Heart Leaps Up”: Written by the English romantic icon William Wordsworth,
this short poem “The Rainbow” first appeared in 1802. It is stated that he composed it the year
when he was staying with his sister, Dorothy, at Dove Cottage in Grasmere. However, it appeared
in the collection Poems in Two Volumes quite later in 1807. The poem outlines the poet’s
philosophy of nature and the natural time cycle and lies in the popularity of the poem.
● “My Heart Leaps Up” As a Representative of Nature: The speaker of the poem, who is
Wordsworth himself, states that he becomes excited and thrilled when he looks at the sky to see
a rainbow. However, he questions its existence, saying that it is always there even when he was a
child, and it is there now that he is a man. And it will be there even when he gets old. The main
philosophy is the natural lifecycle in which a man becomes the father of a child, and this cycle
continues unabated. The poet desires that his own days should be spent in nature to learn piety
which he calls natural piety.
● Major Themes in “My Heart Leaps Up”: Love for nature, natural lifecycle, and purity in nature
are major themes of this poem “My Heart Leaps Up.” Although the title does not correspond with
the main thematic ideas, it is clear that the poet enjoys the proximity of nature. He loves it for the
sake of nature as well as for the sake of his own purity and piety. He knows that natural things
such as a rainbow have been present since time immemorial and that a generation will pass and
they will stay there. Therefore, he desires to spend his time in the proximity of this nature so that
he can become pure and pious himself. This purity of nature is the hallmark of nature Wordsworth
presents in his poems as it appears here.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth’s literary skills par excellence when it comes to using literary devices to enhance the
intended impact of his poems. Some of the major literary devices in this poem are as follows.

1. Anaphora: It means the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive verses.
The poem shows the use of anaphora, such as “So.”
2. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of
/e/ in “My heart leaps up when I behold ” and the sound of /o/ in “So be it when I shall grow old.”
 3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the
sound of /w/ in “So was it when my life began” and the sound of /ch/ and /n/ in “Bound each to
each by natural piety.”
4. Enjambment: This literary device shows the rolling over of one verse to the next to connect it to
the main idea or theme or meaning. The poem shows the use of enjambment, such as;

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

5. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. William
Wordsworth used imagery in this poem, such as “A rainbow in the sky”, “So was it when my life
began” and “The Child is father of the Man.”
6. Paradox: It means to insert or put contradictory ideas into a verse or a statement. The poem
shows the use of a paradox, such as “The Child is father of the Man.”
7. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols, such as a
rainbow, sky, child, and father, to show the poet’s love for nature and its depiction.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in My Heart Leaps Up

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of
the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows good use of formal, poetic, and melodic
diction.
2. Free Verse: It means to use poetry without any rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. This poem is a
free verse poem.
3. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. This is a single-stanza poem with just nine
verses.
4. Tone: It means the voice of the text. The poem shows a loving, intimate, and natural tone.

Quotes to be Used
The following lines are useful to quote when talking about nature and its power.

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

The poet of ‘My Heart Leaps Up,’ William Wordsworth advocated for poets to move away from the use of
dense and archaic language, which had been popular up until that point in history. Instead, he believed
that poetry could and should be written in the everyday language of the average man. This idea is clearly
displayed in this poem. Compared to other Wordsworth poems, the vocabulary and meaning of this piece
are relatively easy to grasp.
Summary
‘My Heart Leaps Up’ by William Wordsworth centers on a rainbow, a symbol of nature and how the poet
wishes to keep his childlike self alive.

This poem begins with a reference to a rainbow. Whenever Wordsworth beholds it, his heart gets filled
with enthusiasm and energy. It is not that the sensation of joy existed in his heart when he was a child. As
an adult, he still enjoys the beauty of a rainbow. He wishes to retain this childish self even if he matures
and grows old. If it does not happen, he will embrace death unquestionably. According to him, nature,
symbolized by the rainbow, will always be divine, and he thinks it should be for everyone.

Themes
This poem consists of the following themes: nature, childhood, beauty, and aging. The main theme of this
piece like most of his poems is nature and the beauty in it. For him, nature is a true embodiment of God.
A glimpse of the rainbow is like having glimpses of the divine entity. The rainbow is nothing other than a
bridge that connects poets to the spiritual self. He wishes never to lose touch with nature even if he grows
old. The theme of childhood is another important aspect of this piece. This theme is present in the third
and seventh lines. Besides, the theme of aging is displayed in the fifth line.

Structure
The poem’s simplicity carries over into its use of rhyme scheme. There are a total of nine lines in this
piece. Each line ends with one of 4 sounds, each sound is repeated twice, except “man,” which ends two
lines and is rhymed with “began.” The rhyme scheme of this piece can be sketched as ABCCABCDD.
Regarding the meter, the poem is written in iambic tetrameter. There are three variations: the second line
is in iambic trimeter, the sixth line contains two iambs, and the last line is in iambic pentameter.

Literary Devices
Wordsworth’s ‘My Heart Leaps Up’ contains the following literary devices that make the poetic thoughts
more appealing to readers.

● Synecdoche: It occurs in the first line “My heart leaps up when I behold”.
● Anaphora: Lines three to five begin similarly. It is an example of anaphora.
● Hyperbole: It occurs in “Or let me die”. This line is also a rhetorical exclamation.
● Metaphor: In the line “The Child is the father of the Man,” Wordsworth implicitly compares a child
to a would-be father.
● Allusion: This poem probably contains an allusion to the rainbow of Noah.

Detailed Analysis
Lines 1–2
 My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

In the first lines of the poem, Wordsworth explains his reaction to a rainbow. It’s obvious that the poet has
a deep affinity for the natural world. He says, “My heart leaps up…” This is an extreme reaction to a not
uncommon meteorological event.

Rainbows are, universally, regarded as beautiful, but the rainbow in this poem is a symbol of nature as a
whole. Wordsworth’s reaction is somewhat extreme. Most grown men do not react with the same level of
enthusiasm to a rainbow. As the poem goes on, however, he will argue that we should all share his sense
of wonder.

Lines 3–4

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

In these lines, the poet describes that he has always felt the same visceral, joyous reaction to a rainbow
and to nature as a whole. His sense of wonder began when he was born and persisted throughout his
childhood, into his adulthood. Wordsworth has been a fan of nature from the very start.

Both lines begin similarly with the word “So”. This device (anaphora) is used to emphasize his idea. It also
helps readers to understand that the meaning of these lines is internally connected.

Lines 5–6

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

Wordsworth gets a bit extreme in these lines. First, he states that he hopes to continue to be mesmerized
by nature well into old age. Then, he says “Or let me die!” The fairly unambiguous interpretation here is
that the poet would rather die than find the world around him boring and bereft of beauty. Death would be
preferable to becoming a jaded cynic who cannot grasp the wonder of nature.

Line 7

The Child is father of the Man;

This is, perhaps, the most important line of ‘My Heart Leaps Up’. In his typical fashion, Wordsworth
gives a seemingly straightforward metaphor, which actually has enormous implications.
All people were once children, so the line makes some sense on that level. We come from children as
children come from their parents. The greater implication is that, as a parent, a child can be a great
teacher and a great role model.

Children are constantly experiencing the world as if for the first time. They have an unending sense of
wonder and awe regarding nature and, indeed, life itself.

Wordsworth is saying we should be like children in this way and that we should hold on to our childhood
sense of the world.

Lines 8–9

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

In the last two lines of the poem, Wordsworth closes by reiterating the idea that he hopes to continue
being in awe of nature. He wants every day to be tied together by an ongoing theme of love for the world.
The words “natural piety” imply that the poet considered his feeling for nature to be so reverent that
seeing a rainbow was an almost spiritual experience.

Historical Context
William Wordsworth was part of the Romantic Movement. The artists of this time elevated nature,
discussing it as a part of the “sublime,” or something of great beauty beyond human understanding. This
respect and reverence for nature are on clear display in this particular piece.

The poem was written on March 26, 1802, while Wordsworth was staying at Dove Cottage with his wife.
This was a fertile place for the poet, as he wrote many poems there. Indeed, ‘My Heart Leaps Up’ was
written at around the same time as many of the poet’s other works such as ‘To The Cuckoo,’ ‘Ode:
Intimations of Immortality,’ etc. The poem was first published in 1807 as part of “Poems, in Two Volumes”.
Explore more Wordsworth poems.
Sonnet 29
by William Shakespeare

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Summary of Sonnet 29
● Popularity of “Sonnet 29”: Sonnet 29 is one of the best sonnets written by William
Shakespeare. It is famous for its themes of love and hopelessness. It was first published in 1609.
The poem speaks about an unfortunate man, frustrated with the present state of his life. It also
illustrates the power and impact of true love.
● “Sonnet 29”, As a Representative of Love: This poem is about a speaker, initially downcast
about fate, but becomes excited when he recalls his beloved. The poem begins with the
description of the speaker’s discontent and his lamentation over the miserable plight of life. He
curses his poor fate for his catastrophic condition. He feels abandoned and useless. He feels that
even God is not answering his calls. Also, he is envious from the successful and talented people
around him. He wishes to be rich, satisfied, and fortunate like them but meets only failures and
disappointments. After cursing his present sad state, he suddenly talks about a special person
and his mood changes in a dramatic way. This thought of love provides him immense pleasure
and removes his negative feelings. What, however, stays in the minds of the readers is the
magical effect of love that eradicates his sorrow and makes him feel special.
● Major Themes in “Sonnet 29”: Anxiety, love, and jealousy are the major themes of this sonnet.
The poet discusses his miserable plight and the impact of love. The poem also explains how love
brings optimism and hope to people who feel lonely and oppressed. In short, sonnet 29 is also
about self-motivation.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “Sonnet 29”

literary devices are tools used by writers to convey their emotions, ideas, and themes to make texts more
appealing to the reader. Shakespeare has also used some literary devices to bring depth in this poem.
The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this poem has been discussed below.
 1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of
/i/ in “Wishing me like to one more rich in hope” and the sound of /e/ in “Haply I think on thee, and
then my state.”
2. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For
example, “I all alone beweep my outcast state” and “That then I scorn to change my state with
kings.”
3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the
sound of /s/ “Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising”.
4. Personification: Personification is to attribute human characteristics to non-human or lifeless
objects. For example, “From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate.” Here, Shakespeare
personifies earth as if it is a human being that can sing.
5. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic
meanings different from literal meanings. For example, “lark” stands for hope and good fortune.
6. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick
succession, such as the sound of /th/ in “Haply I think on thee, and then my state.”
7. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break;
instead, it continues to the next line. For example,

“For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “Sonnet 29”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of
the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen lined poem usually written in iambic pentameter. This
Shakespearean sonnet consists of one octave and sestet.
2. Couplet: There are two constructive lines of verse in a couplet, usually in the same meter and
joined by rhyme. This sonnet ends with a couplet, which usually reveals the central idea of the
poem or a concluding thought.
3. Rhyme Scheme: The rhyme scheme followed by the entire sonnet is ABAB CDCD EBEB FF.
4. Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter consisting of five iambs. The poem comprises of Iambic
Pentameter. For example, “When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes.”

Quotes to be Used
The lines stated below can be used in a speech or lecture to glorify the positive attributes of true love.

“For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”

‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ by William Shakespeare is part of the “Fair Youth”
sequence of poems. In these poems, the speaker expresses his love and adoration for a young man. The
sequence stretches from sonnet one all the way to sonnet 129. They are the largest subsection within the
154 sonnets Shakespeare wrote during his lifetime.
Summary
‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ by William Shakespeare is one of several poems
dedicated to the unknown “Fair Youth”.

The poem details the speaker’s depression. He despairs over his state, his fate, and his difference from
other luckier men. But, the second half of the poem asserts, this sadness goes away when he remembers
his love. This person elevates him higher than a king.

Structure
‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ by William Shakespeare is a fourteen-line, traditional
Shakespearean sonnet. The poem is structured in the form which has come to be synonymous with the
poet’s name. It made up of three quatrains, or sets of four lines, and one concluding couplet, or set of two
rhyming lines.

The poem follows a consistent rhyme scheme that conforms to the pattern of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and
it is written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains five sets of two beats, known as
metrical feet. The first is unstressed and the second stressed. It sounds something like da-DUM, da-DUM.

As is common in Shakespeare’s poems, the last two lines are a rhyming pair, known as a couplet. They
often bring with them a turn or volta in the poem. They’re sometimes used to answer a question posed in
the previous twelve lines, shift the perspective, or even change speakers. In this case, the turn is followed
by a summary of the speaker’s attitude. Despite his depressive moments, he would not change anything
when he thinks of “thee”.

Poetic Techniques
Shakespeare makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’.
These include but are not limited to, alliteration, simile, and enjambment. The first, alliteration, occurs
when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same sound.
For example, “all alone” in line two and “hymns” and “heaven” in line twelve.

Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off
before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly.
One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. For example, the
transition between lines eleven and twelve.

A simile is a comparison between two unlike things that uses the words “like” or “as”. A poet uses this
kind of figurative language to say that one thing is similar to another, not like metaphor, that it “is” another.
In the sestet, Shakespeare’s speaker compares his rising mood, when he thinks about his love, to a lark
taking off from the sullen earth.
Detailed Analysis
Lines 1-4

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

In the first lines of ‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ the speaker begins by describing a
particular mental and emotional situation he’s often in. “When,” he says he feels disgraced in the eyes of
luck or fortune, and “men” he finds himself weeping over his outcast state. At these moments he feels
terrible as though heaven is deaf to his plight and God is not listening to his cries. This mournful speaker
curses his “fate,” whatever that may be.

Lines 5-8

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

The next quatrain continues on the same themes. He wishes, in these moments, that he was more
hopeful. That he had the characteristics of those who are “more rich in hope” than he. The idealized man
this speaker has in mind has a lot of friends and a “scope” that is more pleasing. He has more
opportunities than the speaker does and a lot more skills. Although the speaker does not reveal in these
lines what he is so upset about, it is clearly something fundamental. He feels as though he’s lacking
something that other men have.

He adds at the end of this quatrain that he no longer enjoys that which he used to love the most. The man
is in a deep depression.

Lines 9-14

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising

 From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

In the last six lines of ‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ the speaker, unlike in most of
Shakespeare’s sonnets, does not provide a solution to the problem. There does not appear to be a clear
way out of this mindset, but there is a balm.

When is despairs about his own fate and life he thinks on “thee” This “thee” is the “fair youth” to whom so
many of Shakespeare’s sonnets are dedicated. He thinks about this person, becomes happy, and his
state is improved. He uses a similar to compare his rising spirits to a “lark at break of day arising / From
sullen earth”.

The speaker as a lark leaves behind all his mundane earthly problems and is elevated to a higher plane.
He feels, in these happier moments, that he is able to sing hymns at “heaven’s gate,” directly to God.

The final lines of ‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’ summarize the previous twelve. They
state very clearly that the fair youth’s love is the only thing that brings the speaker happiness. He feels
wealthy in these moments, richer than kings. There is no one he’d rather trade places with.