Poetic Devices/Figures of Speech poem Small Towns and Rivers 12th English
2.8. Small Towns and Rivers
Poetic Devices/Figures of Speech:
My hometown lies calmly amidst the trees,
Answer: 1. Personification- animate qualities are given to the words ‘hometown’ that is lying calmly.
in summer or winter,
Answer: 1.Antithesis- two opposite words ‘summer’ and ‘winter’.
or the wind howling down the gorge.
Answer: Onomatopoeia- ‘howling’ presents the sound of the ‘wind’.
Just the other day someone died.
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘d’.
In the dreadful silence we wept
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘w’.
2. Inversion- rearrangement of words for poetic effect.
3. Transferred Epithet- the epithet ‘dreadful transferred from the situation to the ‘silence’.
- looking at the sad wreath of tuberoses.
Answer: 1. Personification- animate qualities are given to the words ‘wreath of tuberoses’.
Life and death, life and death,
Answer: 1.Antithesis- two opposite words ‘life’ and ‘death’.
2. Irony- life and death are not permanent but only rituals are.
The river has a soul.
Answer: 1. Personification- animate qualities are given to the words ‘river’.
2. Metaphor-The River is compared to ‘immortality’.
In the summer it cuts through the land
like a torrent of grief.
Answer: 1. Metaphor-grief is compared to ‘torrent’.
2. Simile
- Sometimes, sometimes, I think it holds its breath
seeking a land of fish and stars
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘s’.
2. Personification
- It knows, stretching past the town,
Answer: 1. Personification- animate qualities are given to the words ‘river’.
from the first drop of rain to dry earth
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘f’ and ‘d’.
and mist on the mountaintops,
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘m’.
the river knows
Answer: 1. Personification- animate qualities are given to the words ‘river’.
A shrine of happy pictures
marks the days of childhood.
Answer: Transferred Epithet- the epithet ‘happy’ transferred from the ‘time’ to the ‘pictures’.
Small towns grow with anxiety
for the future.
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘f’.
2. Personification
The dead are placed pointing west.
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘p’.
it will walk into the golden east,
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘w’.
into the house of the sun.
Answer: 1. Metaphor- the ‘east’ has been compared to the ‘house of the sun’.
life matters, like this.
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘l’.
we all want to walk with the gods.
Answer: 1. Alliteration- Repeat ion of the sound ‘w’.
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