Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

4. ANAPHORA In lines 9 and 11, the poem uses anaphora to emphasize the unprecedented freshness of this particular morning, and to establish a connection between nature and the human soul. The speaker uses the word “Never” to compare the morning vision to every sunrise that came before it. This “Never” also echoes the hyperbole of line 1, which similarly uses negative language (“not any”) to emphasize the novelty of this precise moment at dawn, on Westminster Bridge. Then, in line 11, the speaker repeats the highly exclusive adverb twice (in two forms, “Ne’er” and “never”). The speaker is overcome with intense emotion—he or she believes the vision to be incomparably splendid and soothing. Line 11 also complicates the description of a fresh vision by applying the adverb to the action of a different subject. In line 9 the subject of the "never" as the sun; in line 11, it’s the speaker ("Ne'er saw I"). So, across lines, the word “never” offers two experiences on freshness—one solar, the other human. Within line 11, the word deepens that human experience further. “Ne’er” applies to what the speaker sees, while “never” applies to what the speaker feels. The “calm so deep,” therefore, is both spread across the city and within the speaker. It allows the speaker to more deeply identify with self and place. Where Anaphora appears in the poem: • Line 9: “Never” • Line 11: “Ne'er,” “never”