"To a Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine"

Rhyme: Couplets

Meter: Iambic pentameter, effects the tone seems to make it more of an attack.

Form/Stanzaic Structure: short, fast poem, 1 stanza 4 lines, monologue

Speaker: implied author

Audience: author’s detractors, most like Maude Gonne

Tone: author knows best

Diction:

Syntax:

Sound Pattern: alliteration is the second line increase the speed of the poem.

Imagery: “dog that praised his fleas” works should not be praised just because they are written by Nationalists.

Symbolic Language: Yeats is the dog, and his imitators are parasites without substance.

Figurative Devices: metaphor

Theme: A writer must look to the greats before him, but needs to make the work his own, rather than a copy of the greats.

Argument: Places the author’s works among the greats since his is already being copied.

Rhetoric: direct address “You say….”

Flaws: He refers but does not name those that he has been accused of praising, and how the author views his own work.

Summary: A writer need to know the greats that came before him, but the writing must be his own, not just an imitation. Good writing builds on those that cam before, but should not be parasitic.