George Crabbe: Poems Literary Elements

The poems analyzed are written from the perspective of a third person subjective point of view.

The poems are written in an iambic pentameter.

In the poem entitled ‘’The Library’’, the narrator compares the way in which pain grows with the way a flower grows when it has everything it needs. The comparison is used to show just how easy it is for pain to grow and develop but also to suggest how pain can be get ridden off easily and without too much effort.

We find alliteration in the poem ‘’The Library’’ in the line ‘’When the sad soul, by care and grief opress’d/ Looks around the world, but looks in vain for rest.’’

An ironical element is presented in the poem ‘’The Village: Book I’’ where the narrator mentions those who made a living out of digging for gold and who, despite working with the most precious metal known to men, became poorer and poorer.

The poem ‘’The Village: Book I’’ is a meditative poem analyzing the harsh life many peasants had while living in the countryside.

Because the poems analyzed are meditative poems, there is no time and place where the action takes place.

The tone used in the poem ‘’The Village: Book I’’ is a depressing and tense one.

The protagonist in the poem entitled ‘’The Library’’ are the books which the narrator claims have the power to bring happiness while the antagonist is represented by human misery.

The major conflict in the poem entitled ‘’The Village: Book I’’ is between the poor workers, trying to make a living out of their farm work and the ever changing times and industrialization.

The poem ‘’The Library’’ reaches its climax when the narrator reveals the only place where a person can find happiness and hope.

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When the narrator compares farming with writing in the poem ‘’The Village: Book I’’ and the initial idea transmitted is that both processes require the same amount of effort. This however proves to be an understatement as the narrator later admits that the work a peasant does is much more labor intensive.

The idea that most of the people who lived in the country during the time when the narrator wrote the poems is alluded through the narrator’s remark on the people’s lack to time to look at ‘’syllables’’. This transmits the idea that many people did not have the resources and the time to focus on learning and reading. This is presented as the main reason why the people from the country do not have the same level of education as those in the city in the poem ‘’The Village: Book I’’.

The term ‘’pure air’’ is used in the poem entitled ‘’The Library’’ as a general term to make reference to the good health a person may have.

We find a personification in the line ‘’There thistles stretch their prickly arms afar’’ in the poem entitled ‘’The Village: Book I’’.

We find a hyperbole in the poem ‘’The Library’’ in the line ‘’Undistinguish’d trifels swell the scene’’.

We find an onomatopoeia in the poem ‘’The Library’’ in the line ‘’and Care to weep’’.