The Voice

?

General

- Written about his dead wife

- Cross ryhme represents his continuous love for her

 - Enjament and caesuras also show continuous love throughout the poem 

- Even when you think all is lost, there is still a faint echo 

- 'The Voice' - oddly impersonal - all that is left is her voice, the image is gone

1 of 5

1st Stanza

'you call to me, call to me'

- suggests he can't lose the voice from his head'

- can't let her go

'when you had changed from the one who was all to me'

- fell out of love (bored)
- acknowleding human fault - the way people are

'but at first, our day was fair'

- remembers the day he met her

- remembers initial attraction - nostalgic

- 'fair' represents love = pathetic fallacy (his love is cyclical)

2 of 5

2nd Stanza

First three lines

- reminising good memories

- early days of relationship 

'even to the originial air-blue gown'

- attention to detail 

-links to 'fair' blossoming of love and nature

- nature = change

- poignancy = she's dead

3 of 5

3rd Stanza

'you being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness'

- shows the breeze blowing (blows things away, she's fading away) is it her voice or the breeze?

- something full has now been lost

'far or near?'

- sense of ambivolence

4 of 5

4th Stanza

';faltering, forward' 

- caesura = focuses on his isolation 

- alliteration draws attention to his emotions

'leaves around me falling'

- reaching the autumn of his life

'wind oozing thin through the thorn norward'

- alliteration slows down the line emphasising his suffering and loss

' woman calling'

- cyclical structure 

- something remains, even if it is just a memory or a faint echo 

5 of 5

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all Poetry resources »