1. Midsummer Night By Em and Tess Allusion to Shakespeare’s play, ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’

2. The poem talks of a meeting place of the two lovers, that was unique and special-the river-mentioned in the first stanza, and in the poem ‘river’,. It is described as if the lovers aren’t there anymore, and it’s just a memory. CAROL ANN DUFFY SAYS: Everything is magically transformed by the memory of passionate, romantic love: the heron's grey feathers are "a silver gown"; a rose opens and blooms at midnight. "Shakespeare's shooting star" refers to the passing of time as well as the greatness of his love poetry and to his own affinity with Midsummer Night.

3. 1 st Stanza Personification; “River dressed in turquoise”- inanimate objects are almost brought to life-by their love? Sensual words at the end of lines; ‘me’, ‘you’, ‘held’, ‘smell’-only two people-time seems to slow down; ‘fossils’. Only have each other, or the memory of how it used to be. There is an absence of people in the poem – suggested by the word “Not” and the beginning of almost each stanza.

4. 2 nd Stanza Reference to Elegy; “not there to lie on the grass of our graves’-also shows death of their love-the place where they were ‘alive’. ‘Shakespeare’s shooting star’-refers to passing of time - the death of their love as a result of their ‘idealised’ view of each other. (links to Gatsby and Tess) “when a strange bird sang..above our heads’- birds singing could mean freedom/happiness?-word strange changes the meaning?

5. 3 rd Stanza Begins with the end of the second stanza- “but elsewhere, far.” – the word ‘but’ is a signpost word and could symbolise a change in tone. “Not there for the magic hour when time becomes love” – when in a relationship an hour seems like no time at all and throughout this collection there is a constant battle between time and love and at this moment love seems to win. “young ghosts”- this could symbolise the memories of the love affair when it was ‘young’ and in the ‘honeymoon phase’ Images are elaborated through the memories of love and passion – “the heron’s rages were a silver gown”

6. Stanza 4 This stanza has some ambiguous imagery – “found again by ourselves, you, me, mirrored in water.” Her relationship is coming to an end, the two people attempt to find their identities/souls again - “to find our souls” – implying that when they are together their souls have merged.