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Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening - Coggle Diagram
Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening
Theme
Isolation
The speaker isn't involved in any physical presence in the poem, as if she was a ghost
The speaker is standing on a shore, observing the surrounding nature
Hope
The octave of the poem shows a constantly darkening, realistic image.
This symbolises life's difficulties, also relating to Smith's economic instability.
The sestet takes another step into gothic - supernatural - images of light.
The light is a symbol of hope, and Smith argues that as helpful hope is to get through harsh situations, it can be uncertain and misleading.
Structure
Sonnet form: Petrarchan stanza divisions / Shakespearean rhyme scheme
Volta: transition point
First stanza: “Night on the ocean settles dark and mute” Second stanza: “Or where afar the ship-lights faintly shine”
Imagery: Nature --> Gothic
Monosyllabic lexis: “one deep voice”, “strike the bell”, “dark and mute”, “marked by the light surf” - creating a simple impression of the scene and depict the landscape and humans within it
Poetic devices
Extended Metaphor
Lines 2-14
Sibilance
Line 1: “shore”
Line 2: “ocean settles”
Line 3: “Save,” “is,” “repercussive”
Line 4: “drowsy billows”
Line 5: “rocks,” “still,” “distant”
Consonance
"[...] or still more distant tone
Of seamen [...]"
Assonance
Line 1: “Huge,” “brood”
Line 3: “heard,” “repercussive”
Line 6: “seamen”
Line 7: “relieved,” “deep”
Line 9: “black shadow,” “line”
Line 10: “light”
Line 11: “lights,” “shine”
Personification
Line 1: “Huge vapours brood above the clifted shore,”
Line 2: “Night on the ocean settles dark and mute,”
Line 4: “drowsy billows”
Lines 13-14: “such the dubious ray / That wavering
reason lends in life's long darkling way.”
Caesura
Line 5: “remote; or”
Line 7: “relieved; or”
Line 8: “hour, and”
Line 12: “fires, that”
Line 13: “pilgrim--such”
Simile
Lines 11-13: “Or where afar the ship-lights faintly shine
/ Like wandering fairy fires, that oft on land / Misled the
pilgrim--”
Repetition
Line 4: “Of”
Line 5: “Of,” “or”
Line 6: “Of”
Line 7: “or”
Line 10: “light”
Line 11: “Or,” “lights”