Reading Journal - Victor

• ABCB rhyme scheme and in ballad form - again telling a story, has a song like feel, reinforcing the idea that, like many of Auden's poems such as Miss Gee and O What Is That Sound, it may be a rhyme told to children
• linear chronology -  following the process of his life from being a baby, 'Victor was a little baby, into this world he came', to growing up, 'Victor was only eighteen', and then getting married. Allows reader to become familiar with Victor and his religious upbringing. Also the use of months to show passing time - 'It was a frosty december', 'It was the first of April', and 'It was the middle of september'.
• religion - all the way through, dramatizes Victor's actions at the end of the poem thus making them more shocking
• mood/tone change - at the beginning his father is lecturing him on being a good man, 'don't dishonour the family name', and 'blessed are the pure at heart,' to Victor disregarding all of this at the end and murdering his wife. Also actually believing he himself is God - 'Prepare to meet thy God', 'I'm the resurrection and the life', and 'I am Alpha and Omega, I shall come to judge the Earth some day.' - Alpha and Omega meaning God and Christ
• voice - objective, unbiased showing no emotion or resent toward neither Victor for his actions nor his wife for her ways, not judgmental - like God?
• personification of river and wind - 'the wind said: she must die', 'the river whispered: 'kill' - to illustrate his state of mind, unstable, insane?
• 'It wasn't the King or Queen of Hearts, but the Ace of Spades reversed.' - Ace of Spades symbolising ill fate or death, foreshadowing Anna's imminent death
• change in pace - poem reads quickly at the beginning and slows down when it is discovered Anna is a cheat and Victor begins to lose his mind, dramatizes situation, acccentuating importance of event