Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker of the poem has a first-person perspective. Her tone is characterized by an inability to enjoy moments because she is always imagining their conclusion. She introduces elaborate imagery and engages in a lengthy investigation of her internal state.
Form and Meter
The poem consists of eighteen quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme.
Metaphors and Similes
The speaker imagines a beautiful summer day as the wedding of the months of May and June.
Alliteration and Assonance
The lines "To greet the general glow," "And we together sadly sank," "Is on the surface seen!," "All vanished, like a vision vain," "And, while the wide earth echoing rung," and "We thought, 'When winter comes again, / Where will these bright things be?" have alliteration in their G, S, V, E and W sounds.
Irony
N/A
Genre
Victorian poetry, summer poetry
Setting
A beautiful summer day
Tone
Lyrical but melancholy
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the poem is the speaker. The antagonist of the poem is the end of summer.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the poem is the speaker's inability to enjoy this summer day.
Climax
The climax of the poem occurs when a celestial figure talks directly to the speaker.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
A pile of rocks is personified when it talks to the speaker. The months of May and June are also personified as a couple getting married.
Hyperbole
The lines "All vanished, like a vision vain, / An unreal mockery!" is a hyperbolic description of summer's end.
Onomatopoeia
The phrase "echoing rung" is onomatopoeic.
