LEISURE : LANGUAGE AND STYLE

The poem has 14 lines and each stanza has two lines. This is what we called a couplet. Each couplet rhymes. The rhyming scheme is aa,bb, cc,dd,ee,ff,aa, In stanza 1 care rhymes with stare. In stanza 2 boughs rhymes with cows.  The style is simple and direct. It is written as a descriptive account of ways  to enjoy beauty. 

LITERARY DEVICES

1. Imagery

The poet has strong visual images to help us picture the wonders of nature. 

• and stare as long sheep and cows  gives us the picture of animals resting after a long day work

• streams full of stars provides the picture of a stream shimmering under the sun and at night

• watch her feet how they can dance gives the picture of a graceful lady.

Some images reflecting movement are also use in the poem such as passing by the wood, squirrels hiding their nuts in grass, a beautiful girl dancing and a smile spreading from eyes to the mouth.

2. Simile

streams full of stars ,like stars at night compares the sparkling water in the stream to the sun in broad daylight and stars at night.

3. Personification

Beauty glance and  watch her feet, how they can dance personifies the beauty of nature. it begins with a capital B as it is the name of a person. This help us to picture nature as a beautiful girl with dancing feet and lovely smile.

4. Repetition

The question at the beginning of the poem is answered at the end. The same phrase if full of care in line 2 is repeated in the last line. This makes the poem looks complete. The phrase no time is repeated for effect and to stress out that the problem that busy people face nowadays.

5. Alliteration

The alliteration of the 'st' sound in the phrase stand and stare slows down the rhythm of the line. This reflects the action of stopping and to stand and look at something. 

6. Metaphor

People are compared to cows and sheep because we stand and stare at our surroundings just as they do when they graze in the fields.

7. Contrast

Contrast is widely used to show differences between life  as it should be. Te poet tries to persuade us to change our life style. For example, we have no time to look at  at the beauty of nature while the sheep and cows take time to gaze at the beauty around them In stanza 4 broad daylight is contrasted with night but with a similarity of the shinning water like stars at night. The word enrich in stanza 6 contrasts  with poor in stanza 7. This underlines the message that we can avoid a poor unhappy life by appreciating nature and make our lives rich with meaning.

8. Irony

The poet laments about not taking time off for leisure but the reader gets the impression that he has done it or could be doing it.