Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
First-person point of view of an unnamed speaker having a family bonding moment with his parents.
Form and Meter
The poem is made up of quatrain stanzas except for the last two stanzas. It is written in no particular meter.
Metaphors and Similes
The description of the scene with the stream separating the speaker from Eden Rock is a metaphor for the afterlife beyond the physical world. The speaker uses simile to describe the illumination in the line “The sky whitens as if lit by three suns.”
Alliteration and Assonance
“Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack / Still two years old and trembling at his feet.”
Irony
The speaker describes this bonding moment with his parents in detail yet they are physically separated by a stream.
Genre
Elegy / Ode
Setting
The poem is set in a spiritual realm perhaps purgatory where the speaker engages with his dead parents as he awaits to reunite. The imagined scene is from a childhood memory during a picnic.
Tone
Nostalgic; Peaceful
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker himself. The antagonist is the distance he feels as he hopes to cross over to his parents.
Major Conflict
The speaker is eager to reunite with his parents though there is a separation between them that they have to resolve.
Climax
The climax occurs when the parents signal that there is a path that will give him access to Eden Rock.
Foreshadowing
The title of the poem foreshadows the otherworldly nature of the scenario since the characters are in a spiritual world.
Understatement
The parents casually signal and welcome their child into the afterlife which is an understatement bearing in mind the gravity of death.
Allusions
The poem has religious allusions specifically the title which alludes to the Garden of Eden. Therefore, the text indicates that the scene is not in the physical world but a spiritual realm such as heaven. The imagined scenarios allude to the religious notion that heaven is an idyllic experience personalized for each soul.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Tweed” is a synecdoche for a suit made from tweed fabric. The term “Thermos” is a metonymy for flask container derived from the brand name.
Personification
N/A
Hyperbole
The speaker uses a hyperbolic statement to suggest the brightness of the sky.
Onomatopoeia
N/A
