Oscar Wilde is most famous for his storytelling technique.
Never have I ever heard of him but I do know he’s not. Night after night have I told his story to the stars, and now I see him. His hair is as dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of the desire; but passion has made him like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.
With regards to the extract from Oscar Wilde
(The Nightingale and the Rose): What are the questions that I have asked about the short piece? Why is ivory never pale? These questions are not strictly related to English language.
My main focus is the literary device used by Wilde when he inverted the subject with the auxiliary verb in the affirmative phrases ( have I sung of him..? Have I told his story like everyone else? (And the following derogatory clause, I knew him not, instead of “I didn’t know him”.
What are poetical devices called, and if they ever represent natural speech in 19th century England?
In translation, inverting subject and verb is not unusual in poetry. Is inversion a literal name for a storm/arcing? ” Sometimes it is prompted by considerations of scansion, but really it is for poetic effect. Can you suggest others if they do inversions and inversions?
Here is Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And have a small cabin there, of clay and wattles, Nine bean-rows will
I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone
in the bee-loud glade.
What are the pros and cons of a new car?
