Perfecting Poetry Analysis Answers
1. Identify and record one example of the following poetic devices in this poem.
a. Enjambment
Examples of enjambment include ‘The eyes of the portraits on the wall / look
at me,’ or ‘out in the gardens by the lake / the sleeping peacocks suddenly
awake’.
b. Rhetorical questions
Rhetorical questions in the poem are ‘I take it their glance means nothing at
all?’ and ‘What can have made the peacocks wake?’
c. Repetition
Student responses may include: ‘Look at me, follow me,’ ‘Nothing at all, clearly
oh clearly, nothing at all.’ ‘Out in the gardens.’
d. Rhyme
Examples of words that rhyme are: me and incessantly, lake and wake, forlorn
and horn, break and wake.
e. Assonance
The example of assonance is ‘mournful horn’.
2. Explain why ‘clearly’ and ‘nothing’ are repeated in the last two lines of the first stanza.
‘Clearly’ and ‘nothing’ are repeated in the last two lines of the first stanza to
indicate that the persona is trying to reassure themselves that they have nothing
to worry about. It also serves to make the reader feel worried for the persona.
3. Discuss why the poem ends with a rhetorical question.
The poem ends with a rhetorical question to make the reader think about who
or what might be out in the grounds. It allows the poem to end on a mysterious
note.
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Perfecting Poetry Analysis Answers
4. What is the overall mood of this poem? Include at least one line to support your answer.
Student answers may include: sinister, mysterious, paranoid, panicked, fearful.
Students should support their responses with relevant lines, such as:
• ‘The eyes of the portraits on the wall follow me’
• ‘I take it their glance means nothing at all?’
• ‘Out in the gardens by the lake the sleeping peacocks suddenly awake’
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