English Anthology

Blessing | Quote 1: "The skin cracks like a pod."

Analysis: Harsh 'K' sound mimetic of harsh environment.

Blessing | Quote 2: "the voice of a kindly god"

Analysis: Personification of water creating a semantic field of value.

Blessing | Quote 3: "the sudden rush of fortune"

Analysis: Metaphor for water's value and currency.

Blessing | Quote 4: "a roar of tongues"

Analysis: Zoomorphic and animalistic showing absence of punctuation and chaos.

Blessing | Quote 5: "every man woman child for streets around"

Analysis: Asyndetic list showing a quick and frantic pace.

Blessing | Quote 6: "as the blessing sings over their small bones"

Analysis: Personification acting as a symbol of life against poverty and frailty.

Half-past Two | Quote 1: "Once upon a schooltime"

Analysis: Fairytale juxtaposition with scary tale.

Half-past Two | Quote 2: "He did Something Very Wrong"

Analysis: Capitalisation is harsh and stern showing he doesn't know what it was.

Half-past Two | Quote 3: "Stay in the school-room till half-past two."

Analysis: Imperative showing authority and threatening.

Half-past Two | Quote 4: "Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime"

Analysis: Asyndetic list of neologism.

Half-past Two | Quote 5: "He knew the clockface, the little eyes"

Analysis: Personification of time emphasises his innocence.

Half-past Two | Quote 6: "escaped into the clockless land for ever"

Analysis: Escapism and fairy tale happily ever after.

Poem at Thirty-Nine | Quote 1: "How I miss my father"

Analysis: Repetition of a deeply personal and autobiographical statement.

Poem at Thirty-Nine | Quote 2: "writing deposit slips and checks"

Analysis: Semantic field of finance verb showing profound influence on her.

Poem at Thirty-Nine | Quote 3: "dancing in a yoga meditation"

Analysis: Juxtaposition.

Poem at Thirty-Nine | Quote 4: "tossing this and that into the pot"

Analysis: Monosyllables acting as ingredients for life.

Poem at Thirty-Nine | Quote 5: "seasoning none of my life the same way twice"

Analysis: Semantic field of cooking as an extended metaphor for her life through his influence.

Poem at Thirty-Nine | Quote 6: "happy to feed whoever strays my way"

Analysis: Generosity that mirrors sharing of good food.

Sonnet 116 | Quote 1: "marriage of true minds"

Analysis: Intellectual marriage ceremony permanence.

Sonnet 116 | Quote 2: "alters when it alteration finds"

Analysis: Polyptoton where the root of the verb is mimetic of love staying the same while change happens around it.

Sonnet 116 | Quote 3: "it is an ever-fixèd mark"

Analysis: Stays still and endures.

Sonnet 116 | Quote 4: "star to every wandering bark"

Analysis: Metaphor for the north star acting as a guide.

Sonnet 116 | Quote 5: "Love's not Time's fool"

Analysis: Personification of time.

Sonnet 116 | Quote 6: "bears it out even to the edge of doom"

Analysis: The ultimate Doomsday as a Biblical image of endurance.

La Belle Dame sans Merci | Quote 1: "Alone and palely loitering"

Analysis: Sickly death and sad.

La Belle Dame sans Merci | Quote 2: "And no birds sing."

Analysis: Sign of predator and danger and death.

La Belle Dame sans Merci | Quote 3: "I see a lily on thy brow"

Analysis: Extended floral metaphor for death and loss of blood and being physically ill.

La Belle Dame sans Merci | Quote 4: "And her eyes were wild"

Analysis: Dangerous and mysterious foreshadows trouble.

La Belle Dame sans Merci | Quote 5: "Pale warriors, death-pale were they all"

Analysis: Repetition of pale creates a ghastly atmosphere.

La Belle Dame sans Merci | Quote 6: "On the cold hill's side."

Analysis: Cyclical structure.

My Last Duchess | Quote 1: "That's my last Duchess"

Analysis: Repetition of the title and possessive pronoun.

My Last Duchess | Quote 2: "Looking as if she were alive"

Analysis: Sinister.

My Last Duchess | Quote 3: "The curtain I have drawn for you, but I"

Analysis: He controls who sees her.

My Last Duchess | Quote 4: "too easily impressed; she liked whate'er She looked on"

Analysis: She likes too many things and hyphen betrays real feelings with bitterness and repetition of too plosive sound.

My Last Duchess | Quote 5: "I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together."

Analysis: Militaristic and extremely sinister tone.

My Last Duchess | Quote 6: "Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea-horse"

Analysis: Duke represented as God of Sea showing Duke is self obsessed.