Geordie – Analysis

Just considering the title, I expect the poem to be about a man whose name is Geordie.

Taking structure into consideration, the poem is arranged into seven stanzas of four lines each; they are separated by spaces and punctuation.

The intelligent reader should notice that there are many dialogues into the poem.

The speaking voice tells about when he/she was walking on the London Bridge and heard a lady lamenting for her lover. The pretty lady maid started saying her Geordie would be hanged in a golden chain because he was born from King's royal breed. Then, she started praying for help in favour of the man. In the fourth and fifth stanzas she's talking to the judge and she's begging him to let her Geordie free. The judge responds by telling her he cannot pardon Geordie. In the last stanza you understand that the young lady couldn't do anything for Geordie.

Really important is the use of verb tenses that show the maid's feelings. The first two lines of the third quatrain start both by the imperative (anaphora) with whom you can understand she is giving orders but also praying for the life of her beloved man. In the last two lines she uses the infinitive tens to express her will and her goal which is trying to convince the judge to let Geordie live. In the last two lines of the following stanza she talks by using the present conditional: it makes the reader understand that she would do anything in exchange of Geordie's life. The sixth stanza is distinguished by the presence of the judge who speaks by using the Simple Present: the situations will not change. There are also many repetitive expressions that can address to the semantic field of life.