Shut Out

Analysis of Shut Out

1st stanza -

• "The door was shut" - a simple sentence/one idea (defensive)
• "Iron bars" and "flowers bedewed and green" - contrast/juxtaposition
• "Iron bars" - what she wants is in reach but the bars are acting as a barrier
• "My garden" - possessive "my" and "i" throughout
• "Bedewed and green" - adjectives - reinforces the narrators attitude
• "Garden" - love? death? person/relationship?

2nd stanza -

• Repetition of "from", "bough" and "flower" - reinforces nostalgic tone
• Entire stanza is a complex sentence = complex feelings/thought process
• Sentence variety from 1st stanza
• "Lost" - positioning in the stanza draws attention to it

3rd stanza -

• "Shadowless spirit" - inhuman, scary, frightening - reference to death
• "Blank and unchanging" - reinforces previous point
• "Like the grave" - simile
• "Let" - imperative dialogue - desperate not forceful

4th stanza -

• "He answered not" - blunt tone and simple sentence
• "One small twig" - reinforces desperation
• Lack of dialogue from the spirit

5th stanza -

• "Spirit" - afterlife - another reference to death
• "Build a wall" - wall and garden are symbolic
• "He" - masculine pronoun - possible link to a relationship
• "Straining eyes" - reinforces desperation and frustration

6th stanza -

• "So now" - past to present tense - less anger - more resigned - realisation
• "Blinded with tears" - hyperbole
• "Delightful land" - reference to land = hyperbole

7th stanza -

• "And good..." and "And dear..." - parallelism

Overall -

• 1st person narrator/voice/persona
• Regular rhyme scheme 
• May have lost something/someone
• Iambic tetrameter - 4 beats in each line
• Title "Shut Out" - sentence fragment - incomplete - terse and aggressive tone
• Lexical choices - 2nd and 3rd stanza
• 1st stanza - impression of rhythm and rhyme 
• Choice of verbs and connotations 
• Pleading and desperate tone