Robert Louis Stevenson Swing Poem

'The Swing' past Robert Louis Stevenson is a 3-stanza poem that is separated into sets of 4 lines, or quatrains. These quatrains follow a structured rhyme scheme that conforms to the blueprint of ABAB CDCD EFEF. Information technology is normal within children's poetry for a rhyme scheme to exist within the text. They are often very prominent and simple. This gives the slice a sing song-like rhythm that but enhances the rhythm of the meter. IN the example of 'The Swing' 1 should take note of how the pattern bounces forth, mimicking the up and down motion of the swing.

The metrical pattern is also quite simple, information technology alternates every other line betwixt ten and six syllables. This, forth with the consistent rhyme scheme, makes the text quite easy to read as there are no surprise twists or turns.

The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson

Summary

The poem begins with the speaker asking the listener how much they like to swing up into the blue air. This is a rhetorical question, as seen past the speaker'southward quick response. They love it more than anything and think it'south the best thing a child could spend their time doing.

In the next stanza, the kid speaker describes how when they are swinging at their highest height they are able to see over a wall and into the countryside beyond. There are farmlands and farm animals, all waiting to be discovered. On the way dorsum down they see the brown roof of their home. The descent is dragged out past the long "o" sounds utilized by Stevenson, but one time they achieve the bottom they apace escape from the mundane and travel back up into the sky.

Poetic Techniques

Stevenson uses a number of poetic techniques in this text that make apply of repetition. These include anaphora and assonance. Anaphora is seen in the repetition of a discussion or phrase at the beginning of the line. A very clear example is the refrain that begins four of the lines in this short poem, "Upward in the air…" It occurs one time in the start and second stanzas and twice in the third.

In regards to assonance, or the repetition of a vowel sound within the words of a line or lines, i can see it occurring most obviously within line two of the third stanza. The "o" sound is used repeatedly in this line, dragging out the process of the swing falling from its highest meridian.

Analysis of The Swing

Stanza One

How do you like to get upward in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do call back it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child tin can practice!

In the first stanza of this piece, the speaker begins past asking a question. This question, and the lines the follow, make it clear that this speaker is a young child. Information technology is unclear who the intended listener is supposed to be. It could too exist a child, or some other developed the speaker is excitedly talking to.

The question this child asks is nigh swinging "Upward in the air so bluish." This phrase "Up in the air" is repeated throughout the verse form. It appears in each stanza, and begins a full of four lines. Information technology is a perfect example of anaphora.

He or she wants to know how much the listener likes to do this. There is no room for a respond as the speaker goes right into their own respond. They retrieve that it is the "pleasantest thing" that a child could do. There is nothing else that brings one more than pleasure than the liberty of flying on a swing.

Stanza Two

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I tin see and so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside—

The first line of the second stanza of 'The Swing' begins with the refrain, "Up in the air…" The speaker is imagining the best moments they have had on the swing and the joy they felt when they rose so high they could run across "over the wall." This gives the reader one simple detail most the setting. It is enough to where ane can assume this swing is located within a altitude of a structure, perchance a house or the boundaries of a farm or garden.

When the child swings this high they are able to see "so wide." In the flashes they get of the land beyond the wall they run across "Rivers and trees and cattle and all." They are wild images, things that tin can only been seen, at least from that perspective, from the swing.

It is clear that the swing gives the child a sense of ability that he or she doesn't take when they are on the ground. They become a view all "Over the countryside" when the swing. The kid's 24-hour interval to day earthly life dissolves every bit their height increases.

Stanza Three

Till I look down on the garden green,

Downwardly on the roof so chocolate-brown—

Upward in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

In the concluding 4 lines, Stevenson utilizes the billowy motion of the rhyme and rhythm to simulate the up and down progress of the swing. The child has risen up to see over the wall, and so every bit the swing starts to autumn they "wait down" and see the "garden green." This clarifies a bit more of the setting. The swing is in a garden and it is the garden wall the child is looking over.

On the way dorsum down the child also sees the "roof so brown." It is the opposite of the countryside, as it is dark and familiar. It is function of the kid's home and it represents safety and the mundane everyday. Luckily, it rapidly floats away over again.

The concluding two lines both begin with the phrase "Up in the air…" As long as the child has the energy to push the swing, they will continue in this arch, upwardly in a higher place the wall, then back downwardly beneath. The poem concludes without a real decision. Information technology is clear that the joy of swinging is going to go along on for a while longer, as the swing goes up "and down!"