Simile, metaphor, hyperbole, metre

**Simile or metaphor? Look for like or as.**

• similes: words depart 'like summer birds'; words are 'of as little worth as just so many weeds'; empty words are 'like plants that make a gaudy show';
• metaphor (no like or as): 'the heart, a pilgrim upon earth', a traveller looking for comfort.

Hyperbole and contrast. 'The world might hold a feast' if words could satisfy us is hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration). Contrast runs through the poem: many empty words against a few true ones.

Repetition and rhyme. Repeating words, heart and satisfy keeps the theme in focus. The rhyme scheme is ABAB (heart/depart, care/air).

Feeling in the exclamations:

• admiration: 'those few, how dear!';
• frustration: 'Oft satisfy the least!';
• disillusionment: 'One particle of fruit!'

Metre. An iambic beat: unstressed, then stressed: 'the HEART, a PIL-grim UP-on EARTH'.