Evangeline; A Tale of Acadie Literary Elements

Third person omniscient

Dactylic hexameter

Simile:
- "Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village / Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending" (49-50).
- "Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the wayside" (66).
- "In-doors, warm by the wide-mouthed fireplace, idly the farmer / Sat in his elbow-chair and watched how the flames and the smoke-wreaths / Struggled together like foes in a burning city" (199-201).
-"Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed; / Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the northeast / Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland" (670-672).

Metaphors:
- In lines 442-447, Longfellow uses a metaphor of a storm to demonstrate how terrible, how sudden, how dramatic the change of fate for the Acadians was after the British exile them: "As, when the air is serene in sultry solstice of summer, / Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones / Beats down the farmer’s corn in the field and shatters his windows, / Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch from the houseroofs, / Bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their enclosures; / So on the hearts of the people descended the words of the speaker."
-Lines 520-521 have a metaphor of thunder and lightning standing in for the voice and power of God: "Keenly the lightning flashed; and governed the voice of the echoing thunder / Told her that God was in heaven, and governed the world He created!"
-Lines 683-688 use the metaphor of a long pathway strewn with the bodies of the dead to showcase Evangeline's weary wanderings: "Fair was she and young; but, alas! before her extended, / Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life, with its pathway / Marked by the graves of those who had sorrowed and suffered before her, / Passions long extinguished, and hopes long dead and abandoned, / As the emigrant’s way o’er the Western desert is marked by / Camp-fires long consumed, and bones that bleach in the sunshine."

Alliteration:
- "...and wild with the winds of September / Wrestled the trees of the forest" (152-153).
- "Now recommenced the reign of rest and affection and stillness" (171).
- "Under the open sky, in the odorous air of the orchard" (403).
-" As, when the air is serene in sultry solstice of summer, / Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones" (442-443).

Assonance:
- "While the monotonous drone of the wheel, like the drone of a bagpipe, / Followed the old man's song and united the fragments together" (213-214).

-Father Leblanc is described as “ripe in wisdom” and possessive of a “look of wisdom supernal.” He is elderly and beloved by the community. When asked about the British presence in the region and what it might portend, he confidently assures Basil, Benedict, Evangeline, and Gabriel that there is nothing to worry about. The great irony in his statement is that the very next day the British announce the expulsion of the Acadians. The irony serves to reinforce how powerless the Acadians are in the face of their larger fate.

Epic Poem

1755-1793 Acadia and the British colonies

Sentimental, emotional

Protagonist: Evangeline Antagonist: The British

If Evangeline will ever be reunited with Gabriel, her great love.

When Evangeline and Gabriel are separated on the shores of the sea.

- After the announcement of the expulsion, Evangeline returning to an empty and dreary house foreshadows her father's death and loss of Gabriel that leave her lonely and bereft.
- The Shawnee woman's stories foreshadow Evangeline's own inability to find Gabriel and live her life with him. She too will grow old, spending her life waiting for her love.

n/a

-the sign of the Scorpion refers to an astrological sign during October 23-November 21
-Abraham, Ishamel, and Hagar: In the Bible, Abraham exiles Hagar and her son Ishmael
-Elijah ascending to heaven refers to God taking the prophet
-Paul being shipwrecked on the way to Rome, most likely on Malta
-the ladder of Jacob refers to the patriarch's dream of a ladder ascending to Heaven as he flees from his brother Esau

n/a

-"and aloft on the mountains / Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic / Looked on the happy valley..." (29-31)
-"but Evangeline's heart was sustained by a vision" (785)
-"...the lotus / Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boatmen" (809-810)
-"...the manifold flowers of the garden / Poured out their souls in odors, that were their prayers and confessions" (1031-1032)

-"Fairest of all the maids was Evangeline, Benedict's daughter! / Noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the blacksmith!" (418-419)

-"murmuring"
-"clangor"
-"whoop"
-"lowing"