Idle Tears Paraphrase Essay Example for Free

Idle Tears Paraphrase Essay Paraphrase: As the speaker looks upon cheerful autumn fields, he longs for bygone days. His feelings rise from the seat of emotion, the heart, and gather to the eyes (line 3) as tears. He cannot link the tears to a specific memory, for they are idle tears—tears that he cannot explain. Apparently, it is the past in general that moves him, the days that are (lines 5, 10, 15, and 20). .The past can hearten, like mornings first light on the sail of a ship returning our friends from the land of the dead. And it can sadden, like evenings last light on the sail of a ship carrying those friends beyond the horizon. So sad, so fresh (line 10) are those days of long ago. .How strange and sad it is for a dying man to hear the first chirp of the birds at the dawn of a summer day and watch the sun turn the window into a glimmering square. .The bygone days are as sweet to us as the memories of kisses from loved ones who have died—as as sweet at those we imagined we bestowed on the lips of a person pledged to another. Memories of those days are as deep as first love and full of regret for what we did or did not do. They are death in life, those days that are long gone. Figures of speech: Alliteration know not (line 1) depth of some divine despair (line 2) Fresh as the first beam (line 6) friends up from (line 7) which reddens over one (line 8) with all we love below the verge (line 9) So sad, so fresh (line 10) sad and strange as in dark summer dawns (line 11)Apostrophe/Paradox Death in Life Apostrophe: The speaker addresses Death. Paradox: Death in Life Metaphor Death in Life, the days that are no more (line 20) Comparison of the days that are no more to Death in Life Simile The second stanza compares the freshness of the days that are no more (line 10) to the freshness of the first beam (line 6). It also compares the sadness of the days that are no more to the sadness of the last [beam] which reddens (line 8). The simile reads this way: The days that are no more are fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail . . . [and] sad as the last one which reddens. . . . The third stanza compares the sadness and strangeness of the days that are no more (line 15) to the earliest pipe of half-awakend birds / To dying ears (lines 11 and 12). The simile reads this way: The days that are no more are sad and strange . . . as the earliest pipe of half-awakend birds to dying ears. The fourth stanza compares the days that are no more (line 20) to the dearness of remembered kisses (line 16), the sweetness of kisses by hopeless fancy feigned (line 17), and the deepness of love (lines 18 and 19). The simile reads this way: The days that are no more are dear as remembered kisses after death . . . and sweet as those by hopeless fancy feignd . . . deep as love, deep as first love. . . .