You may want to refer to the post "Common Poetic Techniques and Terms."
Scansion
Line 1: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 2: u u / u u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 4 stresses
Line 3: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 4: u / u / u / u / u / (enjambment) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 5: / / u / u / u / u / (enjambment) = 10 syllables with 6 stresses
Line 6: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 7: u / u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 8: u / u / / u u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 9: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 10: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 11: u / u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 12: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 13: u / u / u / u / u / (enjambment) = 10 syllables with 5
stresses
Line 14: u / u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 15: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 16: u / u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 17: / u / / u / u u u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Line 18: / / u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 6 stresses
Line 19: / u u / u / u / u / (end-stop) = 10 syllables with 5 stresses
Prevailing meter: iambic pentameter
Primary variation on dominant foot: trochee
Form: villanelle
Rhyme scheme: a1ba2 // aba1 // aba2 // aba1 // aba2 // aba1a2
Poetic Techniques
Line 1: "way" and "play" = internal rhyme
"little" = meiosis
"game" = metaphor = life
Line 2: metaphor = hide-and-seek
Line 3: "will" = pun = "desire" or "try to do"
"the same" = meiosis = metaphor = in death
Line 4: "classical physique" = allusion to Greek art = metaphor =
statuesque
Line 5: "courting" = pun = "seek affections of" (the personification
of "lust" and "envy") or "to seek to achieve"
Line 6: refrain
Line 7: "fragile" and "fame" = alliteration
"fame" = metaphor = an object
Line 8: "drop out" = meiosis = die
Line 9: "what" and "will" = alliteration
refrain
Line 10: "world" = synecdoche = humanity
"world to shame" = adynation
Line 11: "Rejoicing" = irony
"flesh" = synecdoche = person
"flesh is mortified" = personification = flesh experiences
shame
Line 12: refrain
Line 13: "contrition," "meant," "tame" = consonance
"tame" = pun = "to bring under control" or "to reduce
from a wild state" (Fear is a primitive emotion.)
Line 14: "caught" = irony = God is omniscient.
"caught and tried" = metaphor = the day of judgment
Line 15: refrain
Line 16: extension of metaphor "game" in lines one, six and twelve
metaphor = nature
Line 17: "universally denied" = irony
Line 18: refrain
Line 19: refrain
Summary and Interpretation
Anthony Hecht's Flight Among the Tombs: Poems (1996) is reminiscent of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). Blake's collection contains illuminative relief etches that have either a polyphonic, often ironic, or a symphonic relationship with the text. Leonard Baskin's woodcuts of the Grim Reaper personify death as a skeleton in a cloak. The Grim Reaper is the speaker in "All Out." In the woodcut that precedes the poem, he is without his distinctive scythe, which the text supersedes. "All Out" is both a satire--Death ridicules human tendencies with regard to vanity, lust, envy, fame, pride, shame and fear--and a contrapuntal response to Blake's idyllic world.
Similar to the poems in Songs, "All Out" is singsongy, attributable to the refrains and to its primarily masculine, regular rhyme. The first and third lines of the first stanza appear four times throughout the poem; the speech sound am (long a) is repeated thirteen times, and the speech sound id (long i) is repeated six times; the five tercets have an aba rhyme scheme, and the quatrain has an abaa rhyme scheme. The poem's lyricism also is attributable to its recurrent meter (pentameter) and predominant foot (iamb). But Hecht varies the rhythm for effect. For example, "While I count up to ten, the others hide," (2) consists of two anapests and two iambs. The anapaests precede the iambs; hence, Death quickly counts while the players slowly hide. The trochee "claiming" (8) is between four iambs, suggesting it may be a faithless declaration. "Of penance and contrition" (13) consists of three successive unstressed syllables, which reflect the quiet atmosphere of churches. Finally, the spondee "This is" (18) aggressively reinforces Death's assertion.
Whereas most lyric poems thematically focus on loss, the formal properties of Hecht's villanelle address the idea of loss directly. The refrains, rhymes, recurrent meter, and predominant foot create a circular argument befitting the theme: it is inevitable we will die. Our inability to progress beyond the limitations established by Death is underscored with numerous caesuras (eleven) and end-stops (sixteen).
Although the topic is serious, the poem's tone is comic, achieved through such techniques as meiosis, pun and irony. Meiosis--"little" (1)--deliberately represents something--life--as less important than it actually is. Death's play on words sustains the poem's complexity. For example, according to Death those who are vain seek the affections of lustful and envious people; furthermore, vanity is a manifestation of lust and envy. Ironic statements such as "Rejoicing when their flesh is mortified" (11) and the universal denial of death also have a comic effect.
In contrast to Blake's appealingly childlike Songs, "All Out" offers a bleak view of human experience. Hecht ensnares his readers with numerous poetic techniques. Death is ultimately victorious both psychologically and physically. His hold is ritualistic, associated with the very form of the poem. Our fall from grace is a descent into time, mortality. Because we cannot escape, we should sing as often as we can.
