In Sonnet 130, twelve lines reject stock praise, then turn: "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare." What signals the shift?

Marvell imagines endless courtship, then writes, "But at my back I always hear / Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near." Which word most clearly announces the shift?

Wordsworth says the forms "have not been to me / As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: / But oft, in lonely rooms..." Where does the turn begin?

In "Ozymandias," the king boasts, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"; then the narrative says, "Nothing beside remains." What marks the shift from boast to ruin?

Hamlet denounces Gertrude's marriage, then stops himself: "But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue." What signals the turn inward?

At the prison threshold in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne sets a "wild rose-bush" beside the "ugly edifice." What does that juxtaposition do?

Wordsworth begins, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," then sees "A host, of golden daffodils." What does the adjacent contrast accomplish?

In "Dover Beach," "The sea is calm tonight" is soon joined by the "grating roar / Of pebbles." What does that juxtaposition do?

Blake's chimney sweeper says, "I am happy, & dance & sing," then adds, "They think they have done me no injury." What does the pairing expose?

Hamlet says, "The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables." What does the juxtaposition of funeral and marriage do?

Dickinson's carriage passes school, fields, and setting sun; then the speaker realizes the horses' heads are "toward Eternity." What does breaking the pattern of passing sights do?

After the Raven's repeated refrain answers the speaker's questions, the poem's final word is again "nevermore." What does this final use of the pattern do?

After three images of decline, Sonnet 73 ends, "This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong." What does the couplet's break from the image pattern do?

Macbeth's speech piles up "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow," then snaps, "Out, out, brief candle!" What does the break in pattern do?

Hamlet asks, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." What does the balanced construction accomplish?

Milton writes, "The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." What does the antithesis emphasize?

Dickens opens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." What does this antithetical syntax establish?

The witches chant, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." What does the balanced reversal accomplish?

Blake asks of the tiger, "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" What does holding the two creatures together reveal?

Keats addresses the nightingale: "Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! / No hungry generations tread thee down." What does the contrast reveal?

Coleridge writes, "Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink." What meaning comes from the contrast?

Donne writes, "Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me." What does the contrast reveal?

After Duncan's murder, Macbeth cuts to the Porter: "Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub?" What does the scene-boundary contrast do?

Sonnet 18 ends, "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." What does the closing couplet's placement accomplish after images of fading summer?

Donne's Holy Sonnet 10 argues against Death, then closes, "One short sleep past, we wake eternally / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die." What does the final placement do?