A Sample Poem Analysed
No end-rhymes here
The reason that I have chosen Edmund Baton, 1931-1945 for analysis is not because I think it is so great, but because it uses a large number of poetic devices but no end-rhymes. One thing that I should say is that in my opinion you should never attempt a poem with thoughts like 'I'll have a little alliteration here' and 'I'll use some Anaphora here' in your mind. That would be just the same thing as forcing rhyme. No, I firmly believe that any kind of poetic device should come naturally, or not at all.
Edmund Baton, 1931-1945 Titles can be important
Contrast It's pleasant here at Huisnes-sur-Mer,
a green mound of flower and shrub:
until you reach the ring of stone,
Contrast the concrete mausoleum
Born in the wrong year; Repetition
Crossed Rhyme living in the wrong place;
dying among the wrong people;
lying now among the soldiers,
Alliteration this son of the vanquished victors. Oxymoron
Anaphora Denied his youth;
denied the life-giving crust;
denied any requiem but the whistling wind Alliteration
denied even a few feet of French soil.
Young bones locked in a block of concrete Euphony/assonance 'o'
can give no laughing warning Internal Rhyme
of those sombre, war-clad years Image
to his children, or to theirs. Next generation!
But then it was his side
that marched the streets of France.
Previous g! His fathers were the ones who took their women; Image
this was the child raised to the sound of war parades.
An eye for an eye;
a tooth for a tooth; Anaphora / repetition
a life for a life; Use of familiar
a child for a child; expressions or
a hate for a hate. aphorisms
That's why twelve thousand lie here, Assonance 'o'
entombed, not to touch the ground, consonance: "d/t"
Alliteration shouldering the burden of a nation's shame;
and he shall bear his child's share. Aporia. Q: what IS this share?