Following literary devices/figures of speech have been used in the poem Fear No More:

1. Metaphor: It is a literary device which is used to make a comparison between two things that aren’t alike but do have something in common. e.g. “heat of sun” and “furious winter rages” symbolise extremes of life (troubles and sorrows), “dust” refers to grave, “reed” refers to weak and “oak” refers to strong.
2. Personification: It is the attribution of human characteristics to non human things. e.g. “furious winter rages“. The phrase means extreme cold.
3. Repetition: It is the repetition of words or phrases in the poem for poetic effect. e.g. “fear no more” and “care no more” have been repeated several times in the poem.
4. Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. e.g. “thou thy worldly task”, “care no more to clothe”,  “To thee the reed is as the oak”, “Fear not slander, censure rash”, “Consign to thee, and come to dust”.
5. Transferred Epithet: It is a literary device in which an adjective is used to describe one thing transferred to another. e.g. “tyrant’s stroke” refers to the cruelty of the ruler.

Read summary of this poem.

The central idea of the poem Fear No More is death. However unlike the traditional poems, we find that death is not considered curse or doom here. Instead, the poet portrays a positive picture of death.

According to him, death is a relief for the a person because after death, a person does not feel heat or cold. He does not fear from a cruel master or a tyrant ruler, the fear of lightning or thundering vanishes away and magic and witchcraft does not work on the dead.

A dead person gets freedom from slanders and criticism. In short he is free from worldly troubles and sorrows. He feels peace in his grave.

The other important idea reflected in the poem is equality. According to the poet, every person is equal before death. He has to though he may be a rich and beautiful person or a poor chimney-sweeper, an illiterate or a scholar, a doctor or a royal. Every person has to die day.

Read summary of this poem.