Browning personifies the pipe, ‘ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered’, creating an idea of magic. Imagery: occurs when the poet uses particularly interesting and clear descriptions. For example, “With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, / And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin” in Part V. Whenever children looked out the window while he was playing nearby, they had to dance to his music and follow after him. In this manner he lured many children into Kindskogel Mountain. The piper heads outside and begins to play his flute. Almost immediately, the rats come out from everywhere and follow him as he plays and dances through the streets, until he finally gets to the river and leads them all to their deaths by drowning. Only one rat escapes, and the speaker tells how that rat swam to family and told the story of the Piper for the rest of his days. Source (books.google.com): Johannes Praetorius, Des Rübezahls anderer, und ganz frischer historischer Theil (Leipzig: In Verlegung Johann Barthol Oelers Buchhändl, 1665), pp. 38-41.

Having achieved this miracle, the deserving Capuchin returned and demanded his money. However, the unthankful townspeople refused to pay. The Ring and the Book(4 volumes, London: Smith, Elder, 1868-1869; 2 volumes, Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1869). urn:lcp:piedpiperofhamel0000brow:epub:a71d5276-6d97-407d-bc67-10897dbadbd0 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier piedpiperofhamel0000brow Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t33281j39 Invoice 1652 Isbn 0688038093 The Works of Robert Browning, Centenary Edition, 10 volumes, edited by Frederic G. Kenyon (London: Smith, Elder / Boston: Hinkley, 1912). The Complete Works of Robert Browning, Florentine Edition, edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, 12 volumes (New York & Boston: Crowell, 1898).

While “The Pied Piper” differs from most of Browning’s adult poetry, much of its charm and delight derive from the same poetic tools that Browning deployed in his more serious work. However, techniques that are praised in “The Pied Piper” are frequently perceived as defects in the adult poems. Victorian critics disliked his predilection for outrageous (and sometimes unpronounceable) rhymes and the excessive use of single rhymes, as in the vivid account of the rat infestation that opens “The Pied Piper”: Simile: It is a comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as.” The poem shows the use of a simile in lines 98-99, where it compares twinkling eyes to candle-flames with salt sprinkled on it. When he saw that he was to receive nothing, he once again walked through all the town's streets with his pipe, as he had done before. This time a majority of the young children under eight or nine years, boys and girls, followed at his feet to the nearest mountain. Miraculously it opened up before them, and the stranger walked inside with the children. It immediately closed again, and neither the man nor the children were ever seen again. Source (Internet Archive): J. von Hefner and J. W. Wolf, "Die Zauberpfeife," Die Burg Tannenberg und ihre Ausgrabungen (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag der S. Schmerber'schen Buchhandlung, 1850), pp. 33-34. Of all the pleasant sights they see, Which the Piper also promised me, For he led us, he said, to a joyous land’. It is a heavenly description to where the Pied Piper was taking the children.

Wherein all plunged and perished!’ The rats are now suffering which suggests how the villagers have suffered too.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Source (books.google.com): Ludwig Bechstein, "Kinder-Wallfahrt," Deutsches Sagenbuch (Leipzig: Verlag von Georg Wigand, 1853), no. 879, p. 717-18. At the end of the year the Piper returned for his reward. The Burgers put him off, with slightings and neglect, offering him some small matter, which he refused.

Hyperbole: It is a deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect. An example of hyperbole can be found in lines 11-20, where the rats are described as causing extreme destruction and chaos as they could not have been so huge.

Browning makes use of several literary devices in ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin.’These include but are not limited to: Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or, Turf and Towers(London: Smith, Elder, 1873; Boston: Osgood, 1873).

The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, 1845-1846, 2 volumes, edited by Evan Kintner (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969). Aristophanes' Apology, Including a Transcript from Euripides: Being the Last Adventures of Balaustion(London: Smith, Elder, 1875; Boston: Osgood, 1875).The following year came with a horde of mice, as though they had rained down from heaven. Plagued anew, the peasants penitently prayed once again and sorrowfully passed through their fields. When the procession reached the lake a little dwarf suddenly appeared in their midst. Then he threw the mutton into a deep pit, which he had got dug for the purpose. The mice all sprang into the pit, which was then closed up at once, and the wizard strictly forbade anyone to touch it in time coming. The rest of stanza 7 uses the voice of one of the rats. This makes the Pied Piper even more powerful that his magic has the capability to make rats talk. Readers who enjoyed ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’should also consider reading some other Robert Browning poems. For example: This City was annoyed with Rats and Mice. It happened that a Pied-Coated-Pyper came thither, who covenanted with the Chief Burgers for such a Reward, if he could free them from said Vermine, nor would he demand it, till a twelve Moneth and a day after.