The house is a poem written by Matthew Sweeney. 1. The House The house is a poem written by Matthew Sweeney.

Matthew Sweeney uses many techniques in order to make this poem effective and meaningful. Such techniques include alliteration, tone, certain sounds and a specific choice of words. However, throughout the poem, the poet never tells us his opinion of the house. He only describes it as it is. The poet never tells us whether he likes the house or whether he simply hated the house. He only tells us what it had, what it looked like and that he grew up there. In a way, this is good for the reader because it allows the reader to use his/her imagination and to read the poem carefully and form his/her own opinions on what the boy thought of the house. For example, "The house had a dozen bedrooms, each of them cold and the wind battered the windows..." Again the poet is telling us about the house, not his opinion of the house. There is never a line in the poem in which the poet states that he thought the house was gloomy or that he hated living there. The poet uses alliteration to make this poem effective. Alliteration gives the poem more meaning and makes it more interesting. An example of this is in the first line, "The house had a dozen bedrooms..." . The alliteration that is used throughout the poem however is unique. The sounds that are used are harsh sounds such as 'h' and 'b' and 'c'. These sounds are normally used when talking about death and gloom. These sounds also contribute in a major way to the overall tone of the poem. The tone of the poem is extremely important because it communicates the exact mood of the poem to the reader. This poem obviously has a very gloomy and sad tone. We know this by looking the sounds that are used, the rhyme scheme and the diction. There is no rhyme scheme for this poem. This helps to bring out the gloomy tone that the poet is trying to achieve. If there were a rhyme scheme then the poem would sound more bright and rhythmic which would spoil the overall tone of the poem. The diction is the choice of words in a poem. The poet has chosen and interesting choice of words. They are all concerning death and gloom