The Unquiet Grave

"The wind doth blow today, my love,

And a few small drops of rain;
I never had but one true-love,
In cold grave she was lain.

"I'll do as much for my true-love

As any young man may;
I'll sit and mourn all at her grave
For a twelvemonth and a day."

The twelvemonth and a day being up,

The dead began to speak:
"Oh who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?"

"'T is I, my love, sits on your grave,

And will not let you sleep;
For I crave one kiss of your clay-cold lips,
And that is all I seek."

"You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips,

But my breath smells earthy strong;
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
Your time will not be long.

"'T is down in yonder garden green,

Love, where we used to walk,
The finest flower that e're was seen
Is withered to a stalk.

"The stalk is withered dry, my love,

So will our hearts decay;
So make yourself content, my love,
Till God calls you away."
Where the Wild Roses Grow

They call me 'The Wild Rose'

But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day

From the first day I saw her, I knew she was the one
She stared in my eyes and smiled
For her lips were the color of the roses
That grew down the river, all bloody and wild

When he knocked on my door and entered the room

My trembling subsided in his sure embrace
He would be my first man and with a careful hand
He wiped at the tears that ran down my face

They call me 'The Wild Rose'

But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me that, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day

On the second day, I brought her a flower

She was more beautiful than any woman I've seen
I said, "Do you know where the wild roses grow
So sweet and scarlet and free?"

On the second day, he came with a single red rose

He said, "Give me your loss and your sorrow"
I nodded my head, as I lay on the bed
"If I show you the roses, will you follow?"

They call me 'The Wild Rose'

But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me that, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day

On the third day, he took me to the river

He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist

On the last day, I took her where the wild roses grow
She lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief
And I kissed her goodbye, said, "All beauty must die"
And I lent down and planted a rose between her teeth

They call me 'The Wild Rose'

But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it, I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day
My name was Elisa Day
For my name was Elisa Day
Similarities between The Unquiet Grave and Where the Wild Roses Grow

The symbol of the lips as a connection between the lovers

Common themes such as passing of time(the third day, twelve months
and a day), death(all beauty must die, mourn all on her grave),
nature and the strong bond of the human being with it(And in greenwood
she lies slain, he took me to the river)
In each ballad, the man represented the first love of the girl
Both women appear as ghosts(Eliza Day in Where the Wild Roses Grow
and the young girl in The Unquiet Grave)
The identity of both men is unknown
The symbol of the flower(he gave me a flower, The finest flower that
e're was seen) that is associated with the beauty of the girls and the love
of each other, whether is requited or not
Your analysis should then work through the following:

Who is the speaker in the poem? The voice in the poem isnt necessarily the poet
himself poets often speaker through personas, real or imagined, personal or
impersonal though of course it can be. Is it in the first or third (or second)
person? Is there anything that reveals or implies anything about the speaker?
Who are they speaking to?

What is the poems setting? Where does the poem take place? A poem can be
set anywhere, in the past, present or future. How does this setting/location
influence the atmosphere of the poem?

What is the form of the poem? Poems can be written in various forms (see below
for summary of the most common) which dictate their length, their layout on the
page, the line length, whether they rhyme or not and how they rhyme (the
rhyme scheme), their meter (the rhythmic structure of the line.) Some forms are
associated with certain themes or genres sonnet form, for example, is
commonly used for love poetry; ballad form for narrative (story) poems. Poets
make deliberate decisions about which form to choose, and form always
interacts with content, whether to reinforce it or to work against it a sonnet
about the end of a relationship might have a particular poignancy, for example.

The best way to work out and begin talking about the form (and also a good way
to calm exam nerves) is to start counting. Count the number of stanzas, the
number of lines, the number of syllables in the lines if they are regular or there is
a pattern. Mark the rhymes and the stresses (see below for summary of common
stress patterns). This should help show up any patterns, and crucially, where the
poem deviates from or tries to break away from the pattern. Thinking about
rhyme for example are all the rhymes full/perfect rhymes? (i.e. night/light,
sky/high) or are there some variations?

Subject matter what is the poem about? If you arent sure, try to describe
exactly what is happening in the poem. Its absolutely fine to express a difficulty
in understanding as the poet has probably made it intentionally complex,
reflecting something about what theyre trying to say.

Look at the imagery used in the poem. Poets often use figurative and
metaphorical language that take words beyond their literal meanings, and
attempt to do so in novel ways. Perhaps choose a couple of the most interesting
images in the poem and comment on them. Why are they interesting? What is
the poet doing? What does the choice of a particular word do to our
understanding, or how does an image create an atmosphere in the poem?

Finally, what does the poem mean? You can write an excellent essay covering all
of the previous points and ignoring this one, but if you can its a good idea to end
with a summary of what the poem means; what the poet was trying to say, and,
perhaps, whether you think they were successful in saying it.
Common poetic forms and literary terms

Alexandrine: A 12 syllable poetic line

Alliteration: the repetition of consonants at the beginning of words e.g. the lazy
languid line. When consonant sounds are repeated within words it is called
consonance e.g. some mammals are clammy

Assonance: the internal rhyming of vowel sounds e.g. on a proud round cloud in
white high night (ee cummings)

Ballad: A poetic form mostly written in four line stanzas (quatrains) of alternating
lines of iambic tetrameter (four pairs of unstressed-stressed syllables) and
iambic trimeter (three pairs). Usually, only the second and fourth lines are
rhymed (abcb), although there is considerable variation in the form.

Examples of ballads: The Ballad of Moll Magee, WB Yeats, Ballad of the

Breadman, by Charles Causley

Blank verse: A type of poetry with a regular meter (generally iambic pentameter)
but no rhyme.

Clich: a saying, expression or idea that has been overused to the point of losing
its original meaning; a stereotype.

Dramatic irony: a rhetorical device where the author causes a character to

behave in a way that is contrary to the truth, or that the audience is aware is
wrong.

Free verse or vers libre: A form of poetry without any regular patterns, rhymes or
meters. Its form is its irregularity.

Heroic couplet:Commonly used for narrative poetry, heroic couplets are rhymed
iambic pentameter pairs of lines.

Hyperbole: exaggeration

Metaphor: an analogy between two words or ideas where one stands for the
other e.g. his smile was the sun not to be confused with the simile.

Personification ascribing human characteristics to inanimate objects or forms

Simile a kind of metaphor which uses the words as or like e.g. he fights like a
lion

Sonnet: A poetic form. Fourteen lines long. Can be rhymed in a number of ways,
but the most common are Shakespearean and Petrarchan. Shakespearean
sonnets are rhymed in three groups of four lines rhymed alternately, followed by
a couplet i.e. abab cdcd efef gg. The closing rhyming couplet often sums up the
sonnet. Petrarchan sonnets are divided into a group of eight lines, called the
octave and a group of six lines called the sestet. The octave is usually rhymed
abba abba, and the sestet cde cde. Usually there is a turn or volta - a change
of direction or mood between the octave and the sestet. Traditionally, the octave
put forward a proposition and the sestet offered a solution.

Examples of sonnets: Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a

summer's day?, Leda and the Swan, by WB Yeats, On His Blindness, by Milton

Terza rima: A rhyming verse stanza form consisting of an interlocking three line
rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded etc - Acquainted With The Night by Robert
Frost

Villanelle: A nineteen line poem with a complex scheme consisting of alternating

refrains. The best way of describing the form is to look at a villanelle itself. The
most famous example in English is Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by
Dylan Thomas

Describing meter

We often talk about meter as the sequence of feet in a line, with each foot a
group of syllable types. The most common syllable groupings are:

Iamb unstressed/stressed or short/long e.g. Shall I compare thee to a

summers day? (Shakespeare)

Trochee stressed/unstressed or long/short e.g. Tyger Tyger burning bright

(The Tyger, William Blake)

Dactyl stressed/unstressed/unstressed or long/short/short e.g. Just for a

handful of silver he left us/ Just for a riband to stick in his coat (The Lost
Leader, Robert Browning)

Anapaest unstressed/unstressed/stressed or short/short/long e.g. Twas

the night before Christmas and all through the house/ Not a creature was
stirring not even a mouse

Spondee (stressed/stressed) and Amphibrach

(unstressed/stressed/unstressed) are also quite common.

Lines are named for the kind of feet (whether they are iambic or dactylic etc) and
then for the number of feet. If there are three it is trimeter, four is tetrameter,
five is pentameter, six is hexameter etc.

Structure
While of an indeterminate length, ballads are usually written in four-line stanzas
or quatrains. These have a rhyme scheme of ABAB. Another feature of ballads is
a repeating chorus or phrase that gives the poem cohesion.
The narrative structure, or what parts of a story are told where, is loose.
Generally, there is very little background or introduction given to the characters.
This is partly because ballads are plot driven, and partly because the audiences
of traditional ballads would already have known the story in general. The success
of a traditional ballad within its time would have been the success of the
balladeer choosing to elaborate upon the parts of the story that would appeal to
a particular audience. Add to this the fact that ballads were often passed on
orally. As a result, parts of the stories would have been forgotten and other parts
added in.

Meter
Iambs are used in the quatrains of a ballad. An 'iamb' (pronounced eye - am) is
known as a foot. This foot consists of an unstressed and a stressed syllable.

Simple language. Some ballads, especially older traditional ballads, were

composed for audiences of non-specialist hearers or (later) readers.
Therefore, they feature language that people can understand without
specialist training or repeated readings. When later poets choose to write
ballads, regardless of their intended audience, the choice of the ballad
form generally implies a similar emphasis on simple language. Sometimes
poets write ballads specifically to react against poetry they see as overly
intellectual or obscure.
Stories. Ballads tend to be narrative poems, poems that tell stories, as
opposed to lyric poems, which emphasize the emotions of the speaker.
Ballad stanzas. The traditional ballad stanza consists of four lines, rhymed
abcb (or sometimes abab--the key is that the second and fourth lines
rhyme).
Repetition. A ballad often has a refrain, a repeated section that divides
segments of the story. Many ballads also employ incremental repetition, in
which a phrase recurs with minor differences as the story progresses.
Dialogue. As you might expect in a narrative genre, ballads often
incorporate multiple characters into their stories. Often, since changes of
voice were communicated orally, written transcriptions of oral ballads give
little or no indication that the speaker has changed. Writers of literary
ballads, the later poems that imitate oral ballads, sometimes play with this
convention.
Third-person objective narration. Ballad narrators usually do not speak in
the first person (unless speaking as a character in the story), and they
often do not comment on their reactions to the emotional content of the
ballad.
 Characteristics of the Byronic Hero

A distaste for social institutions and norms

An exile, an outcast, or an outlaw
Arrogant
Cunning and ability to adapt
Cynical
Dark attributes not normally associated with a hero
Disrespectful of rank and privilege
Emotionally conflicted, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness
High level of intelligence and perception
Mysterious, magnetic, and charismatic
Power of seduction and attraction
Self-critical and introspective
Self-destructive behavior
Social and sexual dominance
Sophisticated and well-educated
Struggles with integrity
Troubled past