Comment on the effect of the main poetic devices techniques used in the poem.
There are several poetic devices or techniques used in the poem. They include Biblical allusion, alliteration, hyperbole, irony, euphemism, rhetorical question, repetition etc. The poem makes reference to Adam and Noah in the following lines.
“My lord, a man in such attire/As Adam’s…, alluding to Adam in his state of nature, “ere he took the devils attire”, that is, before he was clothed in the devil’s garment. Again, it says. “Thou wonderest now / come to win/ This raiment, that kings long have ceased to wear, since Noah’s flood…”. Other allusions in the poem are historical and are predominant in the last stanza. They are, “Grecian Isle” “Sicilian Craftsman” and “Persian rod”. These rekindle memories of great Biblical and historical events. Notwithstanding the length, the poem enjoys an array of beautiful alliterations for sound effect such as: “than the… to-day” “dusk…dawn”, “many…man,” “the throne,” “was wedded…wife”, “black beard”, “may morning”, “things that”, “he had”, “for full…felt”, dread doubt, “help his” and several others.
Repetitions equally abound for sound effect. They include God, “king”, Jovinian ‘throne’, ‘pride etc. Rhetorical questions raise the tempo of the diction as in, “what need have I for temple or for priest? Am I not God…?” Some exaggerated expressions include, “his mighty gate”, “his horse was worth a kingdom’s gift”.