Poetry or prose, when written by a capable hand can communicate internal conceptions of the values of broader society, and in turn express what this inspires or affects in them. More importantly, an author can describe just why this is so important. Macgregor Card manages this with his musical poem “Duties of an English Foreign Secretary” using various forms of prosody, syntax and diction. In this work he projects feelings of displacement, confinement, melancholy, even helplessness; this is due to his coping with a society where structure and formal superficiality detain or destroy nature and the human state.

The speaker in the poem shares a sacred relationship with nature, this is shown throughout the piece, but especially is expressed within the first and last stanzas. “Moon, refrigerate the weeping child/ and guard his frozen book./ There is no thing between the woods/ like music of the band” (line 1-4) In these first few lines the author invokes a sort of prayer to the moon to guard his metaphorical knowledge or soul, or whatever intrinsic quality it is that keeps him connected to nature. He is weeping and needs consolation from the moon, which has long been held as a symbol of the female, the nurturing. The first few lines of the last stanza repeat this invocation, only replacing the word “weeping” with the word “sitting”. Sitting refers to either sitting in reverence or being tamed into the constraints of larger society.

Prosodic characteristics of the poem develop a musical composition of the language, with various rhythm and rhyme. In the lines quoted above the lyrical assonance and consonance emphasize the sense of benediction and awe. The words moon, brook, woods, and music all make use of the long u sound. The words refrigerate, weeping, thing and between all use the long e sound. The words frozen and no use the long o sound. The poet goes even further and manipulates the way a reader would normally pronounce the word nothing by elongating it into no thing, this then rhymes with the word from the previous line frozen. The reader, whether consciously or unconsciously can recognize that there is a natural theme to the words that are rhymed and utilized.

Further into the poem, the writer develops a theme of nature and human, to superficial and routine. “it has nothing to do with love/ it is perfunctory/it is the end of the year/ it is your idea and I want more of it” (stanza 4, line 4-7) Here the writer directly states that things are routine and adhere only to perceptions that are enforced on him and society, not a reality that is true to himself or others. In the next stanza he expresses his desire to hear and understand nature. “…some hear beasts/perform an even tempered chorus,/I only hear those friends are sawing in the fog.” (stanza 5, line 11-14) He admires those who can hear nature; and he laments the fact that he can only hear his friends “sawing in the fog”. Sawing is a mechanical term, which evokes the idea of civilization, taming the wild, cutting into its beauty and natural state. Because the poet’s friends are assumed to be in London, as an earlier line in the poem suggests, the fog would refer to its famously foggy climate. They are performing an unnatural act in a highly recognized city, furthering themselves from nature.

The sixth stanza in the poem makes interesting use of internal rhyme to further his point. He condemns the sordid conformity of society with which he contends. In a very direct manner he expresses his frustration. “Youth to fortune/instrument you are/ prohibitive and lying sack of wood,/ ” (stanza 6, line 8-12) The poet uses consonance in the result that it also displays a sense of confinement, frustration, and a choppy rigorous sentiment. The words youth, to, fortune, instrument, and prohibitive all use the t sound to separate syllables and words. The words sack and wood also work as short, one syllable words to further the effect.

The poet manipulates prosody and diction to further the evolution of sentiment and connotation throughout the work. The sense of sacredness and virtue in nature is paralleled by the superficiality of society, and the alienation that it produces. Macgregor Card controls his craft of words vividly and in doing so expresses his concepts and sentiments successfully.