Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The Poet (Moore)
Form and Meter
Free Verse
Metaphors and Similes
Simile:
-"from water etched / with waves as formal as the scales / on a fish"
-"sees boats // at sea progress white and rigid as if in / a groove"
-"a man in scarlet lets / down a rope as a spider spins a thread"
Metaphor:
-C.J. Poole gilding the star so it remains a symbol of hope may be a metaphor for the church continuing to make people believe one thing when in truth it is covering up something less than ideal, if not completely bereft of meaning
-the ensuing storm is a metaphor for the change in perception that is required to see something for what it truly is
-Dürer changing the color of the Tyrol is a metaphor for the poet's ability to shift our perception of the world; it is a warning to readers to be wary of artifice and lack of keenness and nuance in perception
Alliteration and Assonance
alliteration:
-"the purple of a peacock's neck is / paled to greenish azure as Dürer changed / the pine green of the Tyrol to peacock blue"
-"disturbs stars in the sky and the / star on the steeple"
-"the sea- / side flowers and // trees are favored by the fog"
-"sugar-bowl shaped summerhouse of / interlacing slats"
Irony
-the "sweet sea air" being touted as something wonderful when soon enough the beached whales will befoul it
-the devilish description of the man who works on the church
-the "Danger" sign being placed in front of the church if it is intended to be merely about the man working on the star
Genre
Poetry
Setting
A New England town
Tone
Admiring, whimsical, curious, questioning
Protagonist and Antagonist
Pro: perhaps the student Ant: C.J. Poole
Major Conflict
What is the true nature of this town?
Climax
The storm changes the reader's perception of the town and flings the reader down into it, out of their prior elevated position.
Foreshadowing
n/a
Understatement
-"the storm bends the salt / marsh grass, disturbs stars in the sky"
Allusions
-Albrecht Dürer: German Renaissance painter and printmaker
-Tyrol: countryside and forest in Austria
Metonymy and Synecdoche
n/a
Personification
-"whirlwind fife-and-drum of the storm bends the salt / marsh grass, disturbs the stars in the sky and the / star on the steeple"
-"trees are favored by the fog"
Hyperbole
n/a
Onomatopoeia
-"mewing"
