Walter de La Mare- Keys of Morning

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“The Keys Of Morning” is a very mysterious and allegorical poem. In this poem every other line rhymes. In the first stanza there is alliteration: “Little Louisa lonely sat”. This sentence emphasises the words little and lonely so that it is obvious that Louisa is little and lonely. The first stanza is about how Louisa while doing school work looks out the window and sees death watching her in the sunshine. In this poem Walter De La Mare personifies death. We know this, because the poem says “and saw death softly watching her”. Death is not a person therefore it cannot watch people. Also in this verse there is juxtaposition “Death softly watching her in the sunshine pale and sweet”. It is strange to put death and sunshine together as death is frequently associated with darkness. Also De La Mare writes that the sunshine is pale and sweet. However the sun cannot be sweet. Therefore it is a metaphor. The second stanza is a description of death and the keys he is holding. “He sat with half-shut eyes like an old sailor in a ship”. This is a simile. In this verse De La Mare writes “These peeping small, Louisa saw quite clearly”. In this line he emphasising the fact that Louisa is small again. In the first verse he writes “Little Louisa lonely sat” and “She slanted her small bead brown eyes”. Walter De La Mare is using repetition. Also this verse says that death had two keys and one was small (just like Louisa). The first line of the last stanza the poem says “Louisa laid her lesson book”. This is more alliteration. This verse is

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