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What Is The Mood Of The Poem Corinna's Going A Maying

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In Robert Herrick’s poem ‘Corinna’s going a Maying’, the male protagonist is effectively courting a young woman, and is currently trying to remove her from their bed to experience the day. In the given stanza, the speaker is focusing the attention on Corinna, asking her to look at her life and judge what is meaningful. There are stylized elements of poetic tradition in this piece, including the use of charms and riddles. A charm is similar to a lullaby; it exists to turn the mind off, while a riddle is challenging; it pushes the mind and asks us to think outside the box. The use of charms within the stanza is found through repetition, rhyme and the rhythm or sound of the stanza. Herrick uses repetition specifically with the verb “come” …show more content…

Furthermore it rounds the stanza out, concluding his point of view. Rhyming, another component of charm, can be found in the stanza at the end of each double line: “… while we are in our prime… follie of the time,” (ll. 57, 58). The stanza attains a rhyme scheme of AABCDDEEFFGGHH. The use of this scheme helps the poem to flow, causing it to be smooth to read. You are virtually able to sing along to the poem due to the predictable sound. This allows the reader to focus on the words and their meanings, instead of being lost in the rhyme scheme. It also draws focus when the scheme is broken, such as line three and four of the stanza. Here Herrick does not continue the scheme, which in turn draws your attention to the use of two words: “Die” (l. 59) and “Liberty” (l. 60). This in turn forces the reader, and Corinna, to …show more content…

Herrick uses similes’ to establish the popular pastoral nature imagery of the time. He states, “… our days run/ as fast away as do’s the Sunne” (ll. 61, 62). Since the movement of the sun technically judges our day, it’s somewhat obvious, but it highlights the connection of the passing natural world and the couples own inevitable death; their youth may escape them. He goes on to use a metaphor for the shortness of life, ‘and as a vapour, or a drop ofraine’ (l. 63): once a physical being on this earth, soon gone forever. These examples of similes and metaphors enforce the nature imagery this pastoral poem is proud to boast. However, in line sixty-five and sixty-six this imagery is flipped on its’ head. Herrick connects the natural world to that of the supernatural; “So when you or I are made… a fable, song, or fleeting shade,” (ll. 65, 66). He is stating that their physical beings will be gone, and all that will remain will be their ghosts. Soon both characters will be nothing, pulled to the world of the unknown; like a raindrop evaporating into thin air. This knowledge also comes with the loss of all earthly pleasures, of which they both thoroughly

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