Arms and the Boy The title alludes to the opening words of Virgil's Latin epic poem the "Aeneid": "Arma virumque cano" ("Of arms and the man I sing"). The poem is written in heroic couplets, in which successive pairs of lines have related ending sounds. In this instance, the final words do not rhyme; for example, "blade" and "blood" in the quotation. This is a scheme called half rhyme. Text of the Poem at Poetry Foundation Arms and the Boy "Arms and the Boy" is a poem by Wilfred Owen. Like Owen's other famous poems, it deals with the atrocities of World War I;
The Mermaid and the Boy married. While the animals who give return are a frequent motif—"The Grateful Beasts", "The Two Brothers", "The Queen Bee", "The Death of Koschei the Deathless", "The Gold-bearded Man"—in most cases they come to the hero's aid themselves. These animals fulfill a role more commonly found in fairy godmothers and like creatures, of giving the hero magical things that he may use. The Mermaid and the Boy The Mermaid and the Boy is a Sámi fairy tale collected by Josef Calasanz Poestion in "Lapplandische Märchen" (Wein; 1886). Andrew Lang included an English-language version in "The Brown Fairy Book" (1904). It is