The iniquitous nature of unrequited love makes man the submissive jester to his indifferent queen. In his poem “The Cap and Bells,” WB Yeats seeks to convey the message that unrequited love compels a man to give and give of himself until he has nothing left; he makes a fool of himself. He achieves this objective thanks to the clever means of the poetic device. He uses three main vehicles in his quest: rhyme, personification and symbolism. By using these devices, Yeats creates art that causes his reader to think about what he has proposed and thus better understand his tragic view of love. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Without in-depth analysis, one can note the rhyming nature of this poem. The rhyme scheme (pattern of rhyming words at the end of each line) abcb appears throughout its nine stanzas. This improves the overall tone of the poem by preventing it from becoming romanticized and grounding it in reality and angst. The rhyme scheme is interrupted by different sounding words, which produce a jarring effect on the reader. This discordant quality prevents the reader from getting lost in a singing fairy tale by elucidating the dichotomy of the fantasy story offered literally and the reality of its metaphorical nature. An example of this can be found in the fourth stanza: He bade his heart go to her, When the owls called no more; In a red and quivering garment, He sang to her through the door. (Yeats 13-16) This line appears as a loving gesture that could draw the reader into its romance, which would only be intensified by a constant, melodious rhyme. However, the non-rhyming words she and clothing prevent this. Instead of a lilting impression, we're surprised when we get to the third line and find that it doesn't really fit. This is reinforced by the resumption of rhymes in the fourth line. This interrupts the flow of the reading and forces us to think about what we have read, leading us to the conclusion that this is not a fairy tale. Yeats also consistently uses masculine rhymes. This means that the stressed vowel is found in the final syllable of rhyming words. In the previous example we find the words more and each one has a single syllable and masculine rhyme by default. In fact, Yeats only uses two instances of multi-syllabic rhyming words; we find them in lines 4 and 8, the words windowsill and not. If we are to assume that no accidents occur in poetry, the placement of words is vital. Each appears as the last word of its respective stanza in stanzas one and two. These two stanzas constitute the exposition of the poem and are found before the queen rejects the jester. They are therefore different from the rest of the poem; perhaps the fact that Yeats chose them as the only multisyllabic rhyming words serves to distinguish this section from the rest of the poem. Finally, in each of these stanzas, Yeats writes in a consistent pattern of stopped and striding lines. Completed lines are those that end with a punctuation mark, and enjambed lines are those that end without punctuation. The pattern found is: stopped, stopped, cluttered, stopped. For example: The jester was walking in the garden: The garden was still; He ordered his soul to rise and stand on his window sill. (1-4) The only place in the poem where he alternates this pattern is in stanzas 7 and 8. In these cases, all four lines are completed. Using this technique, he alerts the reader to a change in the poem and, therefore, the need for close attention;that is certainly the case here. The climax of the poem occurs in these two stanzas, lines 25-33. Much like his changes during exposition, and his changing of rhyming or non-rhyming words in general, he slightly shocks the reader here with the change, provoking further examination. Yeats also uses personification in this lyric poem. To use personification is to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects. In the very first stanza, Yeats personifies his soul: “He commanded his to rise/and stand on his windowsill” (3-4). He continues in this way until his soul is rejected. He then turns to his heart which, among other things, “sang to him through the door” (16). By creating the heart and soul in the image of humans, he attributes human abilities to them. More precisely, it gives them the capacity for joy and anguish. Additionally, he paints them with distinct personalities; of the soul: “She had become wise by thinking” (7). The heart, conversely, is more romantic: “It became sweet while dreaming” (18). This use of personification helps Yeats take his poem to the next level. This leads the reader to realize that there is more at stake than just a literal heart and soul, as neither can literally speak. Additionally, Yeats is able to express how real this rejection is for the Jester, as the Queen rejects his living soul and living heart. Once Yeats has established a framework, created a tone, and outlined what he wants us to consider important. , the reader is obliged to go further. Here he encounters Yeats' greatest weapon, symbolism. By putting certain characters and objects into action, Yeats makes them symbols and forces his poem on two levels, literal and figurative. In the literal version of the story, there is a jester strolling through a garden outside a queen's window. He told his soul to go to his window sill; there, the queen does not hear him and closes the window. Then the jester sends his heart to her door, but she sends him away with a fan. Finally, the jester leaves him his cap and his bells. She is delighted and opens her door and window and lets in the heart and soul. This can be clearly understood. However, it does not convey Yeats' message of unrequited love and its power to take everything a man has. Indeed, they are only symbols, objects with a deeper meaning. The easiest way is to start with the most obvious: the two main characters, the queen and the jester. These are quite simple in that one can guess their meaning simply by knowing, in everyday life, what they are. Obviously, a queen is a ruler. She is the head of her kingdom, and all others are her subjects, obligated to serve her. A jester is often a “fool”; he is hired for the entertainment of the royal court and should not be taken seriously. Therefore, without even knowing anything else, we can assume that this woman is ruling this man's life, does not take him seriously, and to her he is just mere entertainment. This relationship can also be obtained from his position below her in the garden: "The jester walked in the garden/He bade his soul rise upward" (1, 3). She is “above” him. The garden can also be seen as symbolic, perhaps with some license. Gardens, especially the elaborate masterpieces surrounding castles, are simply for enjoyment. The fact that the jester is in the queen's garden solidifies him as an object of entertainment. Next comes the symbolism of the window and door. The jester sends his soul “to stand on his window sill.” (4). More,, 2000. 27-28.