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’.

  1. 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

  1. 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

  1. 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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