Friday, March 5, 2010

What linguistic/ language features does the poet use to create meaning in the poem below?They told me you had been to her,And mentioned me to...

This poem certainly relies heavily on indefinite pronouns. It also relies on an ABAB rhyme scheme, or an alternate rhyme scheme (in each stanza, the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme), and quatrains (4-line stanzas).


The alternate rhyme scheme is one of the most common rhyme schemes in poetry. It involves a sing-song rhythm. This sing-song rhythm creates the illusion of logic and a problem and resolution pattern; the first two lines of each quatrain set up a "problem," and the rhyming last two lines make us feel as though this problem is resolved. However, the rhyme scheme is very sneaky in this poem because, while it seems like something is happening, nothing concrete is actually happening in the poem! Or, at the very least, whether or not something is actually happening is called into question. 


The poem's last two lines speak to the secretive, elusive nature of the poem ("A secret, kept from all the rest, / Between yourself and me"), perhaps telling us that the indefinite pronouns and the sneaky rhyme scheme are meant to trick us and keep the poem's actual meaning secretive and hidden.

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Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 is sometimes called the Revolution of 1800. Why could it be described in this way?

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