Magpies By Judith Wright Poem Analysis

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Poetic Analysis ‘Magpies’ ‘Magpies’ by Judith Wright is a captivating and fun poem, which explains the two completely different personalities of magpies. In this poem, the poet positions the reader to see nature as mature, prim and proper, but also extremely greedy and selfish. It successfully uses imagery, movement and sound devices to do this. The poetic devices similes, personification, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration and assonance will be examined in this essay. This poem is about magpies, animals that are mature and relaxed, but when food appears they lose these attributes and adopt a greedy and selfish behavior. Through this poem the poet wants to communicate that nature has two sides, one being dangerous and risky, but at the same…show more content…
. The rhythm of the poem ‘Magpies’ is at a medium pace. The rhythm of this poem pulls the reader in and makes them feel the relaxed and then in the second stanza in a panic, and in the third appreciation that magpies can sing beautifully and that they thank God with every note. The rhythm also helps the reader to feel the descriptive words in the poem such as clashing beaks and greedy eyes. The sound devices used in this poem are assonance, alliteration and rhyme. This poem ‘Magpies’ uses rhyme with the ABAB structure in the first two stanzas, but in the third the structure is ABABCC. Rhyme in this poem carries the reader along and helps them to connect with the rhythm. Another example of a sound device used in this poem is assonance. This is used in stanza three, line three: ‘of grace and praise – nor man nor bird’/ stanza four, line five: ‘For each is born with such a throat’/ stanza two, line four: ‘what clashing beaks, what greedy eyes!’ This has an effect that slows down the speed of the poem giving an emphasis on certain words. It also helps to draw the reader into the poem. Another example of a sound device in this poem is alliteration. This is used in stanza two, line one: ‘They look like certain gentlemen’/ stanza three, line two: ‘throws back his head in such a song’/ stanza two, line four: ‘what clashing beaks, what greedy eyes’. This has an effect on the poem of the repeated letter or sound dragging out, making the poem sound more dramatic. These examples position the reader to see nature as appreciative and sometimes
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