Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poem “Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers” is written is a first person subjective point of view.
Form and Meter
The poem “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” is written in a heroic couplet form.
Metaphors and Similes
The main metaphor in the poem “A Description of a City Shower” is the rain described at great lengths by the poet. The rain is used here as a metaphor for the troubles most are bound to encounter in their lives. The fact almost no one manages to find suitable for the elements means that problems cannot be avoided no matter how hard we try.
Alliteration and Assonance
We find an alliteration in the poem “The Beasts’ Confession” in the line “I must confess, on Friday last, wretch that I was”.
Irony
In the first lines of “A Description of the Morning”, the narrator describes a servant girl hurrying to leave her master’s bed and return to her own. Then, shortly after, the wife comes to lay next to her husband, ironically, unaffected by the former presence.
Genre
"Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D." is a meditative and satirical poem.
Setting
The action described in the poem “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” takes place inside a high tower the nymph used as her home. The events described take place during the course of one night.
Tone
The tone used in the poem “The Beasts’ Confession” is a patronizing one.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist in “Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers” is described as being a true writer who is able to produce quality literature while the antagonist is the poem who resorts to stealing what other people created and claiming to be the one who wrote it.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the poem “A Description of a City Shower” is between perception and reality.
Climax
The poem “A Description of a City Shower” reaches its climax when it finally starts to rain and every person is forced to take cover.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
We find an understatement in “A Description of the Morning”, a poem which first described chimney-sweepers as happy children happy to perform their duties. This image changes as the day progresses and the children are then described as in pain and as suffering because of the work they were forced to do.
Allusions
In the poem “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” the narrator alludes the idea that all women are fake and as a result he urges men to be careful when dealing with them as not to fall in their traps.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The term “beast” is used in the poem “The Beasts’ Confession” as a general term to make reference to any form of animal which may inhabit the earth.
Personification
The line “the pious wolf begins” in the poem “The Beasts’ Confessions” contain a personification.
Hyperbole
We find a hyperbole in the line “your still-born poems” in “Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers”.
Onomatopoeia
The line “she singing, still whirls on her mop” in the poem “A Description of a City Shower” we find an onomatopoeia.
