- Describe the subtle changes in setting and analyze how these shifts reveal Eve’s fall from grace.
Answer:
The changes in setting reflect Eve’s fall from grace. It begins bright, but as it goes on, and Satan comes (as the snake) the setting gets darker and darker. The setting begins with Eve picking fruits in the long grass. She is in the wonderful garden of Eden. Satan disguised as a snake has been curled around a tree branch watching her. As it gets darker, he whispers to her slowly sliding down the tree. He slithers up and tells her to follow him “down the dark path to the Blasphemous Tree” (which is the second setting). In this setting Eve eats the forbidden fruit, which God told her not to eat. This is a sharp contrast to the previous setting. The third setting is tragic, Eve is crying outside the Garden of Eden, hungry and alone because she eat the forbidden fruit. The last setting is Satan celebrating his victory under the hill.
2. How does the poem’s diction contribute to tone and meaning? Consider the use of adjectives, verbs, and participles. Look for patterns, contrasts and surprising juxtapositions of words.
Answer:
One pattern is Eve’s innocence (in the beginning). The verbs for Eve are innocent in manner, she is wading, and picking berries, and even after she is thrown out she is crying outside the gate. She is picking sweet berries, and wading in the grass, the image produced is a little girl wading in the water, and picking fruits and eating them. Eve is a maid, her skin is white, which represents innocence. She listens and wonders, another quality of innocence. She is innocent and naïve and that is how Satan tricks her into taking the fruit. Another pattern involves Satan’s trickery. He whispers, falls and tumbles. He is “mute as a mouse” until he falls from the tree (which represent his fall from heaven), he whispers to Eve with a silver tongue, softly almost like a birds song. He is tricking Eve into thinking he is as harmless as a bird. He speaks low, telling her of a secret, and he tricks her to follow him down the dark path, and succeeds. After he and his cohorts celebrate “lewdly” under the hill. The verbs for Eve are innocent in manner, she is wading, and picking berries, and even after she is thrown out she is crying outside the gate.
3. Consider the poets use of figurative language. How does the choice of comparisons influence tone and meaning?
Answer:
The poet compares Satan to a mouse. He is supposedly mute and harmless but it is all just a trick. He is actually the most dangerous being in the garden. He is full of trickery. His speech falls like flowers, suggesting again that he is harmless, that he is just trying to help Eve, not hurt. His speech is like a bird’s song, he is as harmless as a bird, which is trickery. Eve’s innocence is established through the imagery that she is an “orchard sprite”, she is so innocent she is like a magical creature. Imagery further shows Eve’s innocence and how she is easily tricked, and shows how Satan can easily act harmless to succeed.
4. Describe the meter, line length, and pattern of enjambment. What does the rhythm contribute to the mood of the poem?
Answer:
Most of the stanzas consist of only one sentence, and they are enjambed as they continue from one line to the next. For meter, I really don’t know, so…according to the back of the book it is “a triple falling meter, called a dactyllic, with two dactyls to a line.” The poem seems to actually be light, despite the subject matter due to enjambment and meter.
5. Describe the use of repetition and rhyme. Look for patterns. What does the repetition contribute to the mood of the poem?
Answer:
There seems to be no actual rhyme scheme, but the stanzas do seem to have some rhyming lines (ex: Stanza one- sweet/eat). Repetition is used when Satan says, “Eva” three time. “Bells and grass” is repeated a few times, which seems to represent Eve’s innocence. Lines 29 and 30 show repetition, and also show Eve’s naïve nature. Repetition and rhyme contribute to the mood because they seem to hammer home the meaning of Eve’s innocence and Satan’s trickery.
Entries (RSS)