The fact that they court "in full view" shows their complete absence of any feeling of restraint or shame for their flirtation and enjoyment of each other. These first four lines of the poem are written in ABBA style, and this is used by Rosetti to show the orderly and undisrupted happiness of the birds. From these four lines alone we could assume that Rosetti does indeed celebrate the lighter and more pleasurable aspects of life, however, as with so many of her poems, the tone proceeds to distinctly change. The threatening image in line 5 of the "broadening darkness" is almost one of omnipotence, as it is described as "loftier still". Rosetti's use of this comparison is very effective- the overshadowing evil which the speaker senses is simply much higher up, therefore powerful, than the two birds. The image of the "ravenous hawk" is a very striking one, as the adjective "ravenous" has connotations of greed and in this case, an insatiable hunger for death. After the death of the two pigeons, Rosetti ends the second four-line quatrain with a mournful, prayer-like statement: "So farewell life and love and pleasures new." The blunt absoluteness of this line is a powerful tool used by Rosetti to convey the irrevocable consequences of the death of the two pigeons. The description of the actual bodies of the dead birds is extremely poignant as the "snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops" is noted. This tainted image of perfection is distort and distressing to the reader as the purity of the wing plumage being contaminated with evidence of killing and bloodshed seems to be an unnecessary injustice. Rosetti uses onomatopoeia as she describes the "rustling" hedgerow tops which imply the reality of the dream at the present moment, to the extent where the speaker can even hear the sounds around her, and this is further used by the sound of "far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.
