A Fairy Song Analysis by William Shakespeare

A Fairy Song
William Shakespeare

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.








Part 1 - Understanding the Elements
1. Give atleast 3 elements of poetry used by the poet and explain how this elements contribute into understanding the poem.
      a. Use of Figurative Language Devices
              Hyperbole : Line 4 & Line 6
                      Thorough flood , thorough fire!
                      Swifter than the moon’s sphere

              Personification : Line 14
                      And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear

       b. Use of Sound Device
              Iambic Pentameter
                     And hang/ a pearl /in e/very cow/slip's ear.          

       c. Mood
    I think the mood that is evident in this poetry was gladness and pleasure. The fairy was wandering everywhere to fill her fairy queen's wants.

2. Give 2 symbols used in the poem and explain why those symbols are being used for an analogy.

        a.Fairy Queen
        For me this symbolizes a person who we truly love. In the poem the fairy keeps on working just to satisfy her fairy queen and I think that that's how we show our love to our loved ones. We are doing anything that makes them happy because through their smiles, we get our own happiness.

      b.Cowslips

      It is the type of flower the fairy is spreading the dew on. Shakespeare  characterized  cowslips the "Queen's pensioners" meaning the Queen is giving them something, much like an employee geting a pention at work.

Part 2. Analysis
Write a critical analysis based on your understanding of the literary type given. Use 350 words

To cut the whole poem into a paraphrased form,it goes like this:

I cross the hill and the dale, I pass bush and the brier
I over park then over pale
Through flood and the fire
I do walk everywhere, faster than the moon’s sphere
I serve the fairy queen to spread the dewdrop her balls upon the trees
The cowslips tall be her pensioners, you see the spots in their petals
Those be rubies, the gifts of fairy queen
In those freckles live their savours
I must go to looking for the dewdrops here, and put out a pearl in every cowslip’s stem.

Disclaimer:
The paraphrased version was credited to poemnotes.com and I therefore had no copyright on that so to say I credited it since I've got no permission from the site.

In this poem there is a fairy that keeps going around & spreading dew drop on every flower he comes. The flowers are known as cowslips and she is spreading dew drops on them.She refers those flowers to her Fairy Queen. Cowslips are the queen pensioners which mean that the queen is giving away something in return just like an employee gets a pension in return of his services to his employer at work. The poem is all about a fairy serving the fairy queen. A lover serving his maiden.

She said that she does everything what every fairies (lovers) do. She explained that she wanders various places like briers, fires, dales, parks and floods quickly to serve the Queen (the person we loved the most) by dropping dew drops over the bushes and grass. She does this because it is upon the favor of the Fairy Queen and she is trying to make each flower smell good.

For me, to sum it in real life, it's like we have here a lover and his maiden. His maiden was kind of having a dream of becoming something or wanting something to get done and so since he, a lover, wants her maiden to be happy and so he helped her get what she wants as how the fairy helped her Fairy Queen to drop dew drops on each cowslips.

And therefore I must say here, that when you love someone, you'll help that someone to get what makes him/ her happy. Maybe not for your good but at least, you know that you're capable enough to love even without any reciprocation there is.

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