Download What is our life

ABOUT THE WRITER:
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Refer to Walsingham
DICTION:
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Sounds:
AlliterationPLOSIVE SOUNDS:
- P- ‘ play of passion’ , ‘play’, ‘playing’- emphasis on theatrical imagery
- D- ‘ division’, ‘dress’, ‘drawn’ , ‘die’, comedy – not clustered together
- T- The tiring, ‘ this’, ‘short’
- G- grave’
NASAL SOUNDS- melodious, theatre
-‘ mirth the music’, ‘mothers’, ‘ marks’, ‘march’
LIQUID SOUNDS:
-‘life’, ‘like’, ‘latest’, ‘ still’, plodding sounds ‘ play’, ‘playing’
SIBILANCE:
- ‘ short’, ‘sharp spectator’, ‘ searching sun’ and sounds
Assonance – ‘ sits and marks still’ –I- Death
INTERPRETATION:
What went after the play and before- abyss
Adult memories- consciousness, darkness- unconscious
‘spectator’ links to script and angels
Seems life is preplanned but ‘ spectator’ - free will
Humourous- graveyards have a purpose- to save us from sun burns
Tone is light and humorous- befitting a comedy
‘playing’ linked to ‘jest’
RHYME
Scheme: AA/BB/CC/DD/EE- inevitability of death and the musical feel
Type: Rhyming couplets
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE (images)
Simile:
‘Our graves that hide us from the searching sun/ Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.’
Metaphor:
Heaven- Metaphor of God
Searching sun- appreciation
Mother’s womb- preparation for life
Analogy:
A similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based
LIFE- THEATRE
LIFE- PLAY OF PASSION, all
LAUGHTER- MUSIC OF DIVISION
BEGINNING OF LIFE (WOMB) – TIRING HOUSES
GOD- CRITICS, diction and alliteration
GRAVE- CURTAINS (simile)
Metahors
Repetition: ‘ Our’ – ANAPHORA- gives it a universal point of view
Juxtaposition/ Oxymoron:
‘hide’ and ‘search’
Rhetorical Question:
At the beginning – anticipation and wonder
Structure:
Indentation: Inevitability of death
Enjambment :
JUST ONCE- ‘ Our graves that hide us from the searching sun/ Are like drawn curtains when the play is
done.’ – Ending of life
Caesura:
‘Our mothers’ womb// the tiring houses be’
‘Heaven// the judicious sharp spectator is’ – 11 syllables
‘Thus// march we, playing, to our latest rest.’
Metre:
Dropped syllable- instead of attiring- tiring houses
Syllables are between 9-11, the lack of stability adds to the analogy of theatre
Rhythm: SLOW PACED- Caesura, number of syllables (9-11) and ‘passion’, ‘ division’, ‘mother’, ‘comedy’,
‘ spectator’, ‘judicious’, ‘ searching’ , ‘earnest’ , very less enjambment
IMAGERY
Action/ Scene (Theatrical)
-‘ tiring-houses’, ‘dressed’, ‘short comedy’, ‘jest’ , grave compared to curtains- ‘ Our grave that hides us
from the searching sun’ , ‘Are like drawn curtains when the play is done’
- Dropped syllable, Simile, Metaphor
-Nasal sounds and p – play
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Auditory- ‘music of division’ – intermission music
Rhyme scheme, variety
Examiner/God- ‘judicious sharp spectator’ with sibilance
KI ‘sits and marks still who doth act amiss’ – Not involved in the affairs of man
Time- critical, dominant, antagonist
TONE AND MOOD
At the beginning – anticipation and wonder
Tone:
JOYFUL, MELEDIOUS, MELIFICIOUS :
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Airy sounds, liquid sounds, sibilance sounds , plosive sounds
Mirth, music, theatre imagery
Rhyme scheme
Anaphora
Slow paced
Melancholic:
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Last line, plosive sounds
Enjambment
THEMES
Theatre life
Refer to imagery and anology
Passage of time:
Enjambment, liquid sounds however not so much mention of it , assonance
Writer’s point of view:
Universal
AUDIO RECORDING:
http://ia700507.us.archive.org/14/items/life_1008_librivox/life_raleigh_dl.mp3