Lines 55 - 105 from the poem 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin'
55 "Come in!'' - the Mayor cried, looking bigger
And in did come the strangest figure!
His queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red,
And he himself was tall and thin,
60 With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
But lips where smile went out and in;
There was no guessing his kith and kin:
65 And nobody could enough admire
The tall man and his quaint attire.
Quoth one: "It's as my great-grandsire,
"Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,
"Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!''
70 He advanced to the council-table:
And, "Please your honours,'' said he, "I'm able,
"By means of a secret charm, to draw
"All creatures living beneath the sun,
"That creep or swim or fly or run,
75 After me so as you never saw!
"And I chiefly use my charm
"On creatures that do people harm,
"The mole and toad and newt and viper;
"And people call me the Pied Piper.''
80 (And here they noticed round his neck
A scarf of red and yellow stripe,
To match with his coat of the self-same cheque;
And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;
And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying
85 As if impatient to be playing
Upon this pipe, as low it dangled
Over his vesture so old-fangled.)
"Yet,'' said he, ``poor piper as I am,
"In Tartary I freed the Cham,
90 "Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats,
"I eased in Asia the Nizam
"Of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats:
"And as for what your brain bewilders,
"If I can rid your town of rats
95 "Will you give me a thousand guilders?''
"One? fifty thousand!'' -- was the exclamation
"Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.
Into the street the Piper stept,
Smiling first a little smile,
100 As if he knew what magic slept
In his quiet pipe the while;
Then, like a musical adept,
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled
105 Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled;
I choose to pick these lines because I think it gives a certain story that Browning wants to tell and from this I think it's very powerful as well as pretty and innocent.
Browning's perspective of the poem is a man telling a story to a child, but Browning has not told the reader who the child is and why he was there in the first place.
The poem has been written in an iambic pentameter with rhyming couplets and from this Browning gets the tell the story in a way he wants too. He may have used these techniques to roll in with the sub heading being ''A CHILD'S STORY'', that the rhyming scheme from lines 55 on wards creates a very powerful image due to how it's been structured. It becomes more of a nursery rhyme due to the rhythm of this stanza. This effect gives an atmosphere worth taking into consideration because you don't know why Browning has done this as you don't know he is talking to a child till the end of the poem.
The effect of the bright colour that Browning gives the Mayor gives him a powerful character due to that time of year only bright colours were worn by powerful and royalty However, he could also be described as a jester/clown figure within the poem.
Another technique that Browning uses in this poem this the effect on rhetorical questions and how it tells the story from this. Rhetorical questions are used so no answer has to be given, however it gives the reader a chance to question the poem and why they have been used, this is show in line 95.
In the whole of these three stanzas Browning decides to talk about the Mayor and how he has changed, he has done this to caution the reader and make them feel alarmed by him.
Browning has used the technique of foreshadowing in lines 75-79, this keeps the reader in suspense as they don't know what's going to happen and when it's going to happen, this tells the story in a very mystic and gloomy way as well as the poem being very powerful and pretty.
This is really strong when you focus sharply on narrative features. I'm not sure about your first sentence. However, this is a response that shows a lot of careful analysis. Encouraging work.
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