1. Review
• When first glanced at, the title “Ashes of Life”
may possibly cause speculation of many
thoughts.
• One could conclude that the poem was
about the pains of life, ruins of life, or life after
a major crisis (such as a fire).
• In simpler words.....
After the persona’s love has gone away, she
feels nothing for life and sees no point in it.

2. The literary devices

3. • "Love has gone and left me, and the days are
all alike", starts the poem, encouraging the
reader to flow with, rather than seek to
vary, the rather metronomic rhythm.
• The invariance is reinforced by repetition - the
repetition of "love has gone and left me' at
the start of each verse, the parallel
constructions like "eat I must and sleep I
will', and the climactic "And to-morrow and
to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow" all
underscore the poem's basic theme.

4. • The most notable variation in the rhythm is
the series of stresses in "slow hours
strike", where the words lose their rhythmic
flow and gain an emphasis that evokes the
dull, weighty striking of the clock as it ticks the
weary hours off.
• This is followed immediately by the brilliant
"Would that it were day again! -- with twilight
near!" - as perfect a phrasing of the
sentiment.

5. • And finally, the poem appears to end
uncharacteristically weakly - this
is, however, perfectly consistent - like the
speaker's days and nights, the poem has no
satisfying conclusion, just a weary trailing off
that promises no change and no surcease.

6. • This poem has end rhyme that goes in the
pattern ABABCDCDEFEF.
• Personification : It makes love out to be
someone.
• Simile: “And life goes on forever like the gnawing
of a mouse.”
• The attitude : lifelessness and dreariness.
• The theme of this poem is that without love we
are empty.

7. • After reading the poem, the title means much
more. Now it can show that “Ashes of Life”
mean the pain after love is gone or the result
of something devastating.