Figures of Speech
Following are among the figures of speech in the poem. For definitions of figures of speech, click here.
Alliteration
Why are we weigh'd upon with heaviness (line 57)
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil. (lines 82-83)
mild-minded melancholy (line 109)
For surely now our household hearths are cold (line 117)
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak
The Lotos blows by every winding creek (lines 145-146)
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea (line 152)
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined (line 154)
and the clouds are lightly curl’d
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world (lines 157-158)
Anaphora
three mountain-tops,
Three silent pinnacles of aged snow (lines 15-16)
Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine,
Only to hear were sweet, stretch'd out beneath the pine. (lines 143-144)
Assonance
Give us long rest or death (line 98)
Metaphor
from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep. (line 56)
Comparison of the poppy to a sleeping creature
Nor ever fold our wings (line 64)
Comparison of the crewmen to birds
Metaphor, Simile
All round the coast the languid air did swoon,
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. (lines 5-6)
Metaphor: Comparison of the air to a creature that breathes
Simile: Comparison of the breathing to that of a person having a dream
Paradox
And deep-asleep he seem’d, yet all awake (line 35)
Simile
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls. . . . (lines 46-48)
Comparison of the lilt of a sound to the fall of rose petals and dew
we should come like ghosts to trouble joy (line 119)
Comparison of the crewmen to ghosts