May (FINAL) Flashcards
(17 cards)
form
13 line sonnet, implies that something is missing. truncated sonnet.
8 lines idealise the idea of may , the the VOLTA indicates a change in tone
volta followed by 5 rather than 6 lines
-OCTET of fruitfulness SESET of sadness
‘i cannot tell you how it was’
uncertainty and ambiguous nature of ‘it’
direct adress= intimacy and conversational tone= confession
‘Upon a bright and sunny day’
utilises pathetic fhallacy to emphasise joyousness
‘When may was young, ah pleasent may!’
young- youth joy and innocence associated with may
fleeting nature of may becomes a metaphor for the transcience of time and youth/ innocence (promiser of life turns into the fleetingness of it)
‘As yet the poppies were not born’
‘The last egg had not hatched as yet’
DESCRIPTION OF THIS LIMINAL SPACE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH OCCURS FREQUENTLY IN THIS STANZA
connotes may to the idea of innocence and vunerability/ sexual innocence and longing for maternity
‘between the blades of tender corn’
juxtaposition of blades and tender, points towards the vunerability in innocence (lack of awareness to the dangers and threats of the world- E.G hurt to come in a relationship)
‘nor any bird forgone its mate’
reference to abandonment from her ‘mate’
significant that this is on the volta
reinfirces the idea of loss of fertility in next stanza THROUGH MATING
anaphora
‘I cannot tell you how it was’ first line of octave and first line of sestet
emphasises uncertainty, creayes a sense of irony as the octave and sestet have completely different worlds)
draws readers attention to the true meaning of the poem
tone of sestet
soleminity contrasts with the lightness of the first stanza
‘it did but pass’
comparative to ‘came to pass’ in first stanza (suggests that something has ended)
‘iT PASSED AWAY’
REPETIOTION of passed away suggest an ending, euphamism of death, enforces the idea of transcience of life
‘OLD COLD AND GRAY’
assonance of passage of time- melancholy approach to aging
idea of losing/ missing this state of fertility and maternity, missing idealised future
cesura ‘ah, pleasent may’ effect
reflective
pathetic fallacy effect
may- happiness, love, sexuality, fertility
old, cold and gray- lost love, melancholy
significance of natural imagrey in firt octave
-idea of fertility and rebirth (before her ‘mate leaves her and she rejects this idea of love and fertility)
poppies significance
typical of pre-raphelite painting, but there is bleakness to poppy feilds showing lack of longevity to this love)
significance of context of time written
written 1855, year after her engangement with james collinson was called off
