It is a Critical appreciation of a poem by Roy Campbell "The Zebras"

Critical Appreciation

The poem analysed is "The Zebras" by Roy Campbell. It is a beautiful poem that uses vivid imagery to convey the theme. The theme being the beauty of nature and creation and also the freedom and zest for life that we as humans don't have due confinement of our lives. In the poem Roy Campbell pays tribute to nature and he emphasizes this by its structure. The poem has no stanzas therefore represents freedom and adds a natural flow of the poem. However he does use some punctuation to separate his thoughts. He does this by putting a full stop after every four lines and this is effective in that it causes the reader to stop and absorb all that is being said and are therefore inclined to adapt the poets feeling of awe.

The poet uses various poetic devices to convey the meaning. One of which is rhyme.

How to Rhyme The Complete Science of Written Rhyme

Plains Zebras (Equus quagga), more specifically th...

Poetry

The rhyme pattern is a quatrain which means the rhymed lines follow a specific pattern. He uses the rhyme to capture the same ideas, this is viewed line 9 and 10 when the poem breaks away from the average rhyme pattern, ABBA, and instead conforms to an AA rhyme pattern. There is an example of alliteration that can be viewed in this poem and this is "rays in golden rays". The r-sound creates a drawn out sound which also contributes to the theme of freedom as there is no abruptness in the words. There is also an example of assonance and this can be seen in the third line "draw the dawn across the plains" this draws the word out which relates to the action of the Zebra's which suggests slowed movement thus emphasizing the awe the poets vision as well as contributes to the theme of...