— 29 —
"And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be:
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briers my joys and desires."
(The Garden of Love.)
The same in the opening stanza of "the Angel":
"I dreamt a dream! what can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen."[1])
Also in these poems alliteration is found in great profusion, every poem contains several examples of this, so that it will suffice when I give one, chosen at random:
"The Sword sang on the barren heath,
The Sickle in the fruitful field;
The Sword he sang a song of death
But could not make the Sickle yield."
(Couplets and Fragments.)
Another peculiarity of style in these poems consists in the repetition of the same words; often at the beginning of a line:
"I was angry with my friend,
I told my wrath, my wrath did end;
I was angry with my foe,
I told it not, my wrath did grow".
(Christian Forbearance.)
Sometimes a whole line is repeated, the order of the words slightly changed, or exactly the same:
"And I wept both night and day,
And he wiped my tears away,
And I wept both day and night,
And hid from him my heart's delight."
(The Angel.)
- ↑ Imperfect rhymes such as dream-mean, more-poor, echoèd-bed etc. occur very frequently.
