Isaac Rosenberg: Poems Literary Elements

The poem ‘’The Jew’’ is told from the perspective of a first person subjective point of view.

The poem entitled ‘’On Receiving News of the War’’ is written in an iambic pentameter.

In the poem ‘’The Jew’’, the narrator compares the Ten Commandments with the moon which everyone can see during the night. No matter what happens, the moon continues to remain the same. The comparison between the moon and the Ten Commandments is used in this poem as a way of transmitting the idea that the laws given by God can never be changed and will always remain the same, no matter the circumstances.

We find alliteration in the poem ‘’Louse Hunting’’ in the lines ‘’Grinning faces/And raging limbs’’.

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The poem entitled ‘’The Jew’’ is a meditative poem.

Because the poems are commonly meditative poems, there is no fixed setting which can be analyzed.

The tone in the poem ‘’Louse Hunting’’ is an accusatory one and a desperate one.

The protagonists in the poem ‘’On Receiving News of the War’’ is God and the people killed during the war while the antagonist is the First World War.

The major conflict in the poem ‘’August 1914’’ is between the normal citizens living in a country and the forces of war which has the power to destroy their lives completely.

The poem entitled ’’God’’ reaches its climax when the narrator claims that the beautiful things which God gave to the earth are just a way through which he punished mankind.

In the first stanza of the poem ‘’August 1914’’, the narrator compares war with a mighty fir which has the power to destroy everything in its path. This comparison is used to foreshadow the destruction described as being caused by the war.

We find an understatement in the poem ‘’A Worm Fed on the Heart of Corinth’’ when the narrator mentioned Helen and how she was raped by Paris. The narrator later claims this was not true and that Paris was not guilty of his actions but rather a ‘’worm’’.

In the poem ‘’On Receiving News of the War’’, the narrator describes God as lamenting the death of his children of earth. The people who died and who are mentioned in the poem were killed during the First World War. What it is important to note is that the narrator does not make a difference between the people killed who came from different countries, claiming that every life is precious in God’s eyes. Thus, through this, the narrator transmits the idea that war, no matter what the religious leaders claim, it is not something which God wants and thus the people should be careful not to blame he creator.

The term ‘’worm’’ is used in the poem ‘’A Worm Fed on the Heart of Corinth’’ is used as a general term to make reference to sin and the tendency many people had when it comes to doing immoral actions.

We find a personification in the lines "ancient crimson curse!/Corrode, consume’’ in the poem ‘’On Receiving News of the War’’.

We find a hyperbole in the line ‘’ Yon soldier tore from his throat, with oaths’’ in the poem ‘’Louse Hunting’’.

We find an onomatopoeia in the line ‘’yelling in lurid glee’’ in the poem ‘’Louse Hunting’’.