Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poem 'To Helen About Her Hair' is written from the first person narrative point of view and directly addresses Helen, discussing her hair. This poem suggests a relationship between the speaker and Helen.
Form and Meter
'The Epic Stars' is written as one, un-rhymed stanza.
Metaphors and Similes
'Vulture,' describes the movement of the vulture in the metaphor 'its orbit narrowing,' evoking space imagery.
Alliteration and Assonance
In the poem 'To Helen about Her Hair,' the alliteration 'Lights in the length of it. / Long, lovely, liquid, glorious / Is your hair, and lustrous,' flows to give a sense of the quality of the hair it is describing.
Irony
The description 'I lay death-still,' in the poem 'The Vulture,' is ironic, since vultures usually circle around dead things, whilst the speaker in this poem is very much alive.
Genre
'Birds,' is a nature poem.
Setting
'The Broadstone,' is set 'Near Finvoy, County Antrim,' in Northern Ireland.
Tone
The poem 'Praise Life,' is somewhat sad in tone, as the praise instructed recognizes the negative aspects of life.
Protagonist and Antagonist
In the poem 'Vulture,' the protagonist is the speaker and the antagonist is the vulture circling above him.
Major Conflict
In the poem 'Shooting Season,' the conflict is between 'the whole countryside,' and the huntsmen.
Climax
N/A
Foreshadowing
The opening line of the poem 'The Silent Shepherds,' is a question 'What's the best life for a man?' which foreshadows the philosophical tone and content of the rest of the poem, such as the line 'I will have shepherds for my philosophers.'
Understatement
The line 'What do you want, Sybil? I want to die,' in the poem 'The Silent Shepherds,' is an understatement.
Allusions
The poet alludes to 'Homer,' in the poem 'The Epic Stars.'
Metonymy and Synecdoche
I the poem 'Contrast,' the 'Mediterranean,' and 'Atlantic,' represent the 'many seas,' mentioned at the beginning of the poem.
Personification
The poem 'Mountain Pines,' personifies the trees as 'a silent, spectral band,' that 'watch the old sky, but hold no communing / With aught.'
Hyperbole
Jeffers uses hyperbolic language to suggest that being eaten by a vulture is a good way to die. He describes this 'end of one's body,' as 'sublime,' and uses the exclamations 'what an enskyment,' and 'what a life after death,' to give a euphoric or desirable tone to this death.
Onomatopoeia
The poem 'Thurso's Landing,' uses onomatopoeia to describe the wind in 'the wind flustering below.'
