To tell your name the livelong day
This line is the longest one and it gives me a sense of exhaustion. The way "livelong day" draws itself out, just saying it out loud feels tiring.
To tell your name the livelong day
This line is the longest one and it gives me a sense of exhaustion. The way "livelong day" draws itself out, just saying it out loud feels tiring.
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
there is a sense of loneliness to this poem. "are you nobody, too?" -- she is misunderstood and unwanted. "To tell your name the livelong day" -- as if she has nobody in her life that knows her name. That gets to know her and stick around. Making unfulfilling connections all her life.
How
in this stanza there are a lot of short syllables and vowels, it makes the poem seem very airy and open, perhaps to represent how open she is being in the sentiments she expresses
I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?
the repetition of the "o" and "oo" sound is interesting, it is like Dickinson is playing with language to create different sounds
The
the whole poem seems like a life lived. when you are a child, you seek out pleasure, everything is new, exciting, and fun. but as you get older, life becomes more complicated and there comes a great deal of pain. As you get even older, you get weak and tired and eventually die. This seems like a short poem about a whole life
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
"little birds fly" could mirror the way that the children are playing, leaping through the hills with laughter
When voices of children are heard on the green, And laughing is heard on the hill,
Throughout this poem, Blake describes the farming life and the joy that kids get from playing on the hills alongside the sheep and under the sun and the birds. This would maybe be an opposition to the growing industrialization of the world, he may have written this to show contempt for the removal of the laughter heard on hills.
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou Find’st not thy self,
with the repetition of thou and thy in a short span, the speaker is now addressing someone directly, as if preaching to them
swells with one blood
"Swells with blood", the words chosen here convey a sense of sexuality, like blood pumping and swelling certain areas
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, Will waste,
"Wasted honour"... this could perhaps be the loss of virginity that was mentioned earlier in the poem
Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:
"learn how false fears be", not sure exactly to what he is referring, the fear of the flea? Maybe the fear of blood intermingling, similar to the intermingling of bodies during sex. The collon at the end of this line also seems like he is setting up an example of what the fear is
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
the inflection that would be put into "Oh stay" seems like it would be in a preacher's tone. Like Donne is trying hard to convince someone to not kill the flea
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be,
"purpled thy nail" could be the blood of the innocent flea that was killed. but what did the flea do except suck a single drop of blood? he could be comparing this to losing one's virginity.
maidenhead
maidenhead is another word for hymen or virginity, gives this poem a deeper meaning of sexuality
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
repetition of "s" and "e" sounds here, adds a musicality to the line
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
The flea's blood and their blood are all combined, as if they're one.
thee
AABBA rhyme, most ending in "thee"
But they are not the Me myself.
after a long, musical list of things he encounters in his city (or society), he expresses individuality and turns his attention back to himself -- there is a focus on individuality throughout the entire poem
ease observing a spear of summer grass.
Repetition of S sound, hissing sound that creates an interesting sonic experience. Reminds of of snake slithering through the grass.
dusky demon
consonance of the D sounds, creates a strong sonic experience, very assertive. In "dusky" the harsh "d" and "k" sound and in the word demon, the former very strong when you speak it aloud and the latter creates a strong imagery. this consonance is continued from the repetition of "death" in the previous stanza in sound as well as imagery, as "dusky demon" reminds me of the grim reaper, aka death.
tapers
tapers = candles, basically saying there's an infinite number of candles in the sky so she'll be able to see in the darkness
But on, on thy way
Repeated "on" perhaps to keep the iambic trimeter in these shorter lines
bowers
Rhyming Couplets - AA BB CC rhyme scheme
rose-buds
a lot of flower imagery because virginity is often represented as a flowers
Earth raised up her head
personification of earth throughout the poem -- makes the poem feel animated
Chimney-Sweeper
historical setting, we don't have really chimney-sweepers anymore
mire
meaning swampy/muddy ground -- illustrates how down in the dumps the child is, probably caked in mud, sad and crying. Breaks my heart :(
Spring
Summer is icumin vibes
The night was dark, no father was there,
the whole poem invokes a sense of loss and longing. With dark and wet imagery, it seeks to make the reader feel as uncomfortable as the fatherless child. this animates the poem and make it feel as if you can touch the dew
They rise upon clouds,
Romanticism poems often have these proclamations of vivid imagination like "rising upon clouds" and "flying through fields on the wings of a bird" (from a Wordsworth poem I think). These kinds of lines invoke a strong sense of overwhelm for the reader, an otherworld feeling that stems from a vast imagination
young
poem about childhood which is a feature of Romantic poetry
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
consonance: repetition of "S" sound
þ
this is pronounced kind of like "th" ["bloweth" (blows), "Bleteth" (bleats)]. This may have been a stepping stone to Early Modern English words like "hath" (has), "doth" (does), "quoth" (quotes). By knowing the sound of this letter we can try to translate Middle English words.