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Essay on Joheva Buried, Satan Dead by E. E. Cummings

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Poetic and rhetorical devices are used to create the tone of a poem. With a defined and structured tone, the meaning of a poem can be more clearly and effectively conveyed. The poem “Jehovah buried, Satan dead” by E.E. Cummings has a distinct meaning that has been heightened by its tone. The tone is also accented through the use of rhetorical and poetic devices. A few of these devices include onomatopoeia, conceit, slant rhyme, the form, sound, and repetition. Starting with an evaluation of the meaning, the tone and rhetorical and poetic devices become identifiable.

An interpretation of the title and first line, “Jehovah buried, Satan Dead” gives an immediate insight at the meaning of the poem. The absence …show more content…

This has become an even more frightening truth with the world’s present reliance on computers and the Internet for a majority of functions. These technologies and the loss of spirituality, cause mankind to do anything possible to achieve material success. All of this culminates into the deterioration of society. Cummings tells that the only way to prevent this catastrophe is for man to becomes more Christ-like, more individualistic. Mankind must stop its slide into a rut of materialistic irreverence by becoming more self-reliant.

An established meaning makes the tone more evident. The biggest challenge here is to find words strong enough to describe the tone so expertly conveyed by Cummings. The adjectives cynicism, alarmed, and disgust describe the tone. However, it is the use of rhetorical and poetic devices that create this tone.

The most prominent and affective devices include the poem's form, onomatopoeia, metaphor, rhyme, sound, and repetition. “Jehovah buried, Satan dead” is written in a strict ballad form (100 American Poems of the Twentieth Century, 148). This specific type of ballad consists of three eight-line stanzas and a final four-line stanza. The rhyme scheme goes a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c for the first three stanzas and b-c-b-c for the

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