Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Match the lines with the Figures of Speech.
| Lines | Figures of Speech |
| 1. In wondrous merry mood. | Tautology |
| 2. They were so queer, so very queer. | Alliteration |
| 3. And saw him peep within. | Onomatopoeia |
| 4. The grin grew broad. | Repetition |
| 5. And shot from ear to ear. | Hyperbole |
| 6. He broke into a roar. | Repetition |
| 7. Ten days and nights with sleepless eye. | Transferred Epithet |
Advertisements
Solution
| Lines | Figures of Speech | Explanation |
| 1. In wondrous merry mood. | Transferred Epithet | The adjective “merry” describes the person’s state of mind, but it is transferred to the word “mood”. |
| 2. They were so queer, so very queer. | Repetition | The words “so queer” are repeated for emphasis. |
| 3. And saw him peep within. | Alliteration | The sound of the letter ‘w’ is repeated in “without” and “within” (implied context from Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem The Height of the Ridiculous). |
| 4. The grin grew broad. | Alliteration/Tautology | The ‘g’ sound is repeated in “grin grew”. (Note: In the context of this specific poem’s textbook exercises, this is often paired with Alliteration or tautology, depending on the specific answer key, but phonetically, it is alliteration.) |
| 5. And shot from ear to ear. | Hyperbole | An exaggeration; a grin cannot literally shoot physically from one ear to the other. |
| 6. He broke into a roar. | Onomatopoeia | The word “roar” imitates the actual sound being made. |
| 7. Ten days and nights with sleepless eye. | Transferred Epithet/Hyperbole | “Sleepless” is transferred from the person to their “eye”. It is also a Hyperbole because staying awake for ten straight days and nights is a massive exaggeration. |
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
Alliteration is the repetition of sounds in words, usually the first sound. Sibilance is a special form of alliteration using the softer consonants that create hissing sounds, or sibilant sounds. These consonants and digraphs include s, sh, th, ch, z, f, x, and soft c.
Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents for a rhetorical or artistic effect of bringing out the full flavor of words. The sounds literally make the meaning in such words as “buzz,” “crash,” “whirr,” “clang” “hiss,” “purr,” “squeak,” etc.lt Is also used by poets to convey their subject to the reader. For example, In the last lines of Sir Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Come Down, O Maid’, m and n sounds produce an atmosphere of murmuring Insects:
… the moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Notice how D H Lawrence uses both these devices effectively in the following stanza.
He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.
To what effect has the poet used these devices? How has it added to your understanding of the subject of the poem? You may record your understanding of snake characteristics under the following headings:
(a) Sound
(b) Movement
(c) Shape
Match the Figures of Speech with the correct definition.
| Poetic Devices | |
| Figure | Definition |
| (1) Metaphor | (a) The use of the same sound at the beginning of words. |
| (2) Alliteration | (b) An implied comparison. |
| (3) Onomatopoeia | (c) A comparison between two different things, especially a phrase, containing the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. |
| (4) Simile | (d) A word that resembles the sound it represents. |
Pick out one example of the following Figure of Speech.
Repetition
Identify the Figure of Speech in the following line.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
Identify the Figure of Speech in the following line.
No one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Pick out two lines that contain the following figures of speech.
Alliteration
In poetry, very often, there are lines in which the poet seems to talk directly to an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing/object. Such a tactic/device used by the poet is the Figure of Speech ‘Apostrophe’.
For example,
Twinkle, twinkle little star .....
Death! Where is thy sting?
O, Caveman! I wish I could live with you.
Now, complete the following, creating an example of an Apostrophe of your own.
- O, Life! How ......................
- Dear God, Please ......................
- Books! You are ......................
- Exams! I wish ......................
- O, You beautiful sky ......................
Identify the Figures of speech used from those given in the bracket.
(Simile/Repetition/Antithesis/Personification/Metaphor/Alliteration/Apostrophe)
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same”
Pick out line that contain the following Figure of Speech.
Metaphor
Complete the following example of Hyperbole using words from the bracket below.
(horse / lion / death / an ocean / ton / second / help)
Brrrr..! I am freezing to ______.
