The number is of some interest) it was a brilliant starry night For example, “side,” “side,” and “sight” in line four of the first stanza and “light” and “leaving” in line two of stanza two.įorty-two years ago (to me if to no one else For example, the transition between lines one and two of the first stanza as well as between lines five and six of the same stanza.Īlliteration refers to examples of repetition in which the poet reused a consonant sound multiple times in succession. Enjambment is seen through the use of line breaks before the end of a specific sentence or phrase. One has to use sight, sound, and feeling to imagine it.Īlliteration and enjambment are more formal techniques that influence the way that a reader moves through the poem. Here, the poet is using images that require the reader to tap into more than one sense in order to imagine the scene. For example, the line “So darting from side to side I could catch the unwonted sight / Of those almost intolerably bright”. The latter is perhaps the most important literary device at work in this pome due to the poignancy of the images. These include but are not limited to alliteration, enjambment, and imagery. Macneice makes use of several literary devices in ‘Star-Gazer’. This puts an emphasis on the stars right from the start.
For example, lines two, four, five, and eight of the first stanza all rhyme with the words “night,” “sight,” “bright,” and “light”. But, the poem is not devoid of rhyme entirely.
#Star gazer free
Macneice chose not to make use of a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern in ‘Star-Gazer’ meaning that it was written in free verse. The first stanza has nine lines and the second: eight. ‘Star-Gazer’ by Louis Macneice is a two stanza poem that is separated into uneven sets of lines. He notes the brilliance and truth of this and admires the fact that some of the light from stars might not arrive at earth until after the death of humankind. The stars live and die as human beings do, but their life spans are prolonged, reaching out years in either direction from the time period the speaker is living in. This memory involves a night train moving west, as with the setting sun, and the speaker trying desperately to get a look at the stars on either side before his time runs out. These two themes come together as the speaker depicts a scene from his past. The most important themes in ‘Star-Gazer’ are time and memory. The speaker knows that the light from some of the stars won’t reach earth until after everyone has died. He goes on to describe their lifespans and allude to his own. He emphasizes their beauty, the power of their light, and the pleasure he takes from knowing anything about them. In the first stanza of ‘Star-Gazer’, the speaker begins by recalling a time forty-two years ago when he was running from one side of a train car to another in order to see the light of the stars.
‘Star-Gazer’ by Louis Macneice is a beautiful short poem about the nature of time, the universality of life, and the power of memory.
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