To the Moon, #8

Art thou pale for weariness

Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,

Wandering companionless

Among the stars that have a different birth,

- And ever changing, like a joyless eye

That finds no object worth its constancy?

The first interesting technique that i see, is that this entire poem could be considered one single, but also extended, sentence.  Rather, it could be considered a very very beautiful rhetorical question.  This poem is definitely one single open ended question, with a lot of gorgeous phrases.  I really really enjoy percy bysshe shelly’s style of writing.   Lets begin.
SO I have already pointed out that one technique is the poem being one sentence. The second technique is that the poem is rhetorical. The third, is it’s elevated, romanticized diction, “art thou pale”. It is a beautiful beautiful style of writing.  The diction, is very very euphonious as well as the syntax.  The words are all very soft.  Also, the inverted syntax makes the poem very interesting. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, which is similar to a sonnet, but I am sure there is a special word for it.  The last two lines don’t even completely rhyme, however they are similar enough.

It is interesting to me, that this poem, truly is absolutely beautiful.  Interesting enough, this poem is a ridiculously romanticized poem, but it really was only written to the moon. WIth this style of writing, if a man were to read this poem to me, i would probably cry, because it is just beautiful… the humor would be that there would not be much about it.

Love’s Philosophy, #7

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another’s being mingle–
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;–
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Looking at the life span of Percy Bysshe Shelly, I really think that this poem is truly remarkable.  I read his history, and he was married to a sixteen year-old girl. It is difficult to imagine that a man at such a young age of his, could really conceive the meaning of love.  Then again, Romeo and Juliet is a classic example of the limitless age of love.  On another hand, looking at his age, it would only make sense the Percy Byssche Shelly was so in love.  He was a love sick young man… luckily for him, he was also poetically blessed, for he truly captured some strong feelings with his literary techniques. 

One of the more noticable techniques used, is that Shelly had used several open ended questions. Obviously, he had not expected an answer to these questions, rather, they were a statement of his love.   He used a lot of semi- colons and also rhyming.  his references to nature really also help him develop the lovey-dovey mood of his poem…

break, break, break, #4

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
This poem, without looking at the actual meaning yet, has a lot of very interesting techniques. These include alliteration, repetition, and parallelism.  The word break, which is repreated about 3 times per several lines is the perfect example of repetition, becuase it is not only the same sound being repreated but it is the same word.  This phrase can be looked at as parallelism, because it is the same concept used in more than one place of this poem.  “O” is also used alot.  This is also repetition and also parallelism, for the same reasons. Also, there is the technique of alliteration as i have previously stated. Simply, obviously, blatantly, this poem has a lot of repetive sounds. let me demonstrate

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

you get the idea right?