Account for the significance of the poetic techniques/devices used in the poem.
The poem has several poetic devices ranging from allusion, alliteration, use of metaphor to repetition.
These poetic devices generally create a positive impact in the language. The poem alludes to the creation story in the bible when god created everything and man in his image and likeness and subsequently gave man dominion over everything. A number of alliterations have been used to intensify the poetic sound. These include: “made man” “blessing…by” “world… which” “so strength” “repining restlessness,” “may…my” etc. all these have sound effect.
Of equal importance is the use of repetition to create emphasis. Examples include: “God” “nature” “let” “riches” “first” “when” and the pronouns, “my” “him”. Also, the “pulley” is metaphorical as it is used here to represent something which is necessary to draw “man” to God. And in this poem, “riches” and “weariness” are used as baits to pull God’s creatures back to his bosom.
“If goodness lead him not, yet weariness may toss him to my breast” finally, the poem is very effective because of the artistic use of the poetic devices/techniques mentioned above.