Where in the poem do we find a meaning for the following lines:
"Oh! of all the songs sung
No songs are so sweet
As the songs with refrains
Which repeat and repeat."
How does the repetition of "chatter" influence the melody of the first line in the sixth stanza?
How does it affect the thought?
Find another place in the poem where an expression is repeated.
Was this done for the sake of the rhythm, or the thought, or for both?
Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of two or more words in close succession.
Find lines in which alliteration is used e. g. "sudden sally," "field and fallow," etc. What does this add to the poem?
Indicate the rhythm of the first four lines by placing them in these curves:
_______ _______ _______ _______
/ \/ \/ \/ \
Words and Phrases for Discussion.
"coot and hern" (heron)
"bicker"
"thorps"
"fairy foreland"
"willow weed and mallow"
"grayling"
"water-break"
"covers"
"brambly"
"shingly bars"
"eddying"
"fallow"
"babble"
"cresses"
"brimming"
"sharps and trebles"
"skimming swallows"
"netted sunbeams"