Stanzas Written Under Aeolus' Harp By Amelie Opie

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Carefully read the poem ‘Stanzas Written Under Aeolus’ Harp’ by Amelie Opie (Romantic Writings: An Anthology, pp.57-8). Write an essay of not more than 1,500 words in which you analyse the poem and comment on the poetic form and language used (for example, rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, imagery, tone, word order, alliteration, point of view) and ways in which they contribute to the meaning and effects of the poem. The title of the poem ‘Stanzas Written Under Aeolus’ Harp’ immediately suggests we will be presented with a poem written in a classical form. It is an elegy and the subject is death. The Aeolian harp was often used by Romantic poets during this period as a symbol for poetic inspiration; a popular instrument frequently found in places of burial at the time it was written. We can deduce it was written by an educated person by further reference in stanza six to Memnon, who, in Greek mythology, was immortalised by Zeus. The rhythmic form and rhyme scheme is established in the first stanza, and is followed throughout the poem. The form of the poem has a very regular meter. It consists of eleven four-line stanzas. It is a basic structure of iambic pentameters with five stresses on each line on the second syllable and subsequent alternate syllables thereafter, except for slight variations so that the lines have a different pace. Each line is divided into five feet, which is the meter of the poem. Because of the use of stylistic devices such as alliteration and word choice, the lines sound as if they have a different pace, either slow, swift or jerky. They are all rhyming stanzas where the first and third lines rhyme and also the second and fourth rhyme in an a/b a/b rhyme scheme. They are divided into quatrains by the use of a full-stop in nine of them and the other two are curtailed with a question mark and an exclamation mark.. The only time the

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