Read the poem. excerpt from "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Paul Revere was an express rider who, on April 18
, 1775, was charged with delivering a message and alerting communities about the approaching British troops. Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, In their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent to tent, And seeming to whisper, "All is well!" A moment only he feels the spell Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead; For suddenly all his thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay,-- A line of black that bends and floats On the rising tide like a bridge of boats. What are the effects of meter and rhyme in this stanza on the mood of the poem
The meter and rhyme create the mood of anxiety and apprehension
Explanation:
Rhyme and meter beautify the poem. Longfellow has used iambic pentameter and varied rhyme scheme in this 15-line fifth stanza. The rhyme is abba cc dd ee ff gg with line 11 stand alone. 'Dead' and 'spell' shows the anxious mood since 'secret dead' reveals stressful apprehension. 'Hill' and 'still' show the place and horrible silence where people were caught and killed. Dread and tread is coming of more such horrible scenes of dead people. Though the air tells 'all's well', there is an apprehension of 'the place and the hour'. The line not rhymed exhibits the tense mood since the 'thoughts are bent' which means the mind is not in proper thinking mood because of deadly environment. In the river, 'a line of black' is the horror that is in the offing.
