After dissecting the poem, Prayer to the Gods of the Night, I was able to find many figurative devices that help the author convey the emotion and feel of the text to connect the reader to the moment written. Being that it is my first time actually dissecting a poem I may have missed some figurative devices.
Imagery is used in the first four lines. The description puts the reader into that moment of the time. The line “the night is veiled” is a metonymy, because to veil something is to cover it. The night covers the land in darkness. The line “a sleepless client” is a synecdoche, because the “client” is a “client” of the gods of the day. Another figurative device I found was in the line “the father of the poor, the judge” where the judge is a symbol as doing for the poor what a father would do for his children, such as protection; which a judge helps to provide. Another form of symbolism is the representations in nature that represent the gods of the night; such as, “Irra the valiant, the Goat, the Bison”. Finally, I saw that the last two lines of the text are an example of semantic parallelism. The lines “Established the truth in the ritual omen; in the offered lamb establish the truth” are using different words to say the same idea to portray an intensified end to the moment of the text.
The poem utilizes the technique to compare by using the previously mentioned figurative devices. These devices help compare the town sleeping and day becoming night to help set up the “voice of the lone wayfarer” desperately try and connect with the gods of the day who are now leaving the land.
The poem also catalogues the lines and the different moments that are happening simultaneously throughout the poem by organizing these moments so the lines match up. The lines match up to put focus on the significance of each set of lines. For example, while the gods have “gone into the quiet of the sky” the judge “has gone into his”. At that same moment the “lone wayfarer” is calling to the Shamash or Ishtar.
The poem states and varies through semantic parallelism. Throughout the poem the author uses different words to say a similar statement, which thus provides an intensified statement. An example of semantic parallelism is in the first four lines all say how day has turned into night using different words.
A brief explanation of this poem is that it starts out by stating the different actions of a town go through that show the day has come to an end such as, “the gates of the town are closed….doorbolts are fastened”. I feel that this part of the poem reaches out to the mortal feeling of the town as a whole by stating normal human behavior.
The poem then turns to the actions of the immortal that “have gone into the quiet of the sky”. This is ironic because the next sets of lines tell of a traveler praying to the gods who have just left. This is an empty cry, because the gods the traveler calls for have “gone into sleeping”.
After this, the “gods of the night come forth”. Judging from what the god’s symbols in nature were, I felt that the traveler was shouting out for protection from the night. The traveler prays to the gods for protection, but they, as well as the judge who I viewed as a symbol of mortal protection, are all asleep.
The traveler then turns to the gods of the night. I had the sense that the gods of the night were the ones that wanted the offering of the lamb. The gods of the night seemed to be more “vicious” with such symbols as a viper or a dragon, which would want such an offering to establish “the truth” about the traveler’s future.
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