A Stylistic Analysis of Housman's "On Wenlock Edge"

Abstract

A. E. Housman's poem "On Wenlock Edge" is analyzed in terms of categories of tense & adverbials, clause, sentence & line structure, cohesion & information presentation, noun phrase structure, lexis, tropes, & phonological & rhythmical patterning. The poem shifts tense in a ternary form from present to past & back to present; Housman displays a tendency to use pronominal subjects within clauses. The poem's force is attributed to its consistent repetition of descriptions of the gale & its effect on the woods packaged in two primary metaphors: the gale of life & the tree of man. Proper nouns are used throughout the poem, lending a sense of definite locality & reality, & onomatopoeia is achieved by the frequency of fricative consonants. D. M. Smith.