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प्रश्न
Although this text speaks of factual events and situations of misery it transforms these situations with an almost poetical prose into a literary experience. How does it do so? Here are some literary devices:
• Hyperbole is a way of speaking or writing that makes something sound better or more exciting than it really is. For example: Garbage to them is gold.
• A Metaphor, as you may know, compares two things or ideas that are not very similar. A metaphor describes a thing in terms of a single quality or feature of some other thing; we can say that a metaphor “transfers” a quality of one thing to another. For example: The road was a ribbon of light.
• Simile is a word or phrase that compares one thing with another using the words “like” or “as”. For example: As white as snow.
Carefully read the following phrases and sentences taken from the text. Can you identify the literary device in each example?
1. Saheb-e-Alam which means the lord of the universe is directly in contrast to what Saheb is in reality.
2. Drowned in an air of desolation.
3. Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically.
4. For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the elders it is a means of survival.
5. As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make.
6. She still has bangles on her wrist, but not light in her eyes.
7. Few airplanes fly over Firozabad.
8. Web of poverty.
9. Scrounging for gold.
10. And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art.
11. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.
उत्तर
- Irony
- Metaphor
- Antithesis
- Antithesis
- Simile
- Pun
- Pun
- Metaphor
- Metaphor
- Hyberbole
- Paradox
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you.
| Object | Metaphor | Quality or Feature Compared |
| Cloud | Huge mountains of clouds | The mass or ‘hugeness’ of mountains |
| Raindrops | ||
| Hailstones | ||
| Locusts | ||
| An epidemic (a disease) that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead | ||
| An ox of a man. |
You know that a metaphor compares two things by transferring a feature of one thing to the other.
Find metaphors for the following words and complete the table below. Also try to say how they are alike. The first is done for you.
| Storm | Tiger | Pounces over the fields, growls |
| Train | ||
| Fire | ||
| School | ||
| Home |
There are a number of literary devices used in the poem. Some of them have been listed below. Choose the right ones and write them down in the table as shown in the example. In each of the cases, explain what they mean.
| simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification. hyperbole, repetition, |
| 1. The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child: | Simile; the wedding guest was completely under the control of the mariner |
| 2. Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the lighthouse top | |
| 3. The sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he | |
| 4. The bride hath paced into the hall, Red as a rose is she | |
| 5. And now the storm-blast came, and he was tyrannous and strong: | |
| 6. With sloping masts and dipping prow, As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe | |
| 7. The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around |
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. |
When some words, in the line of the poem, express the same idea in different ways, the figure of speech used is ‘Tautology’.
For example,
- happy and joyful.
- motionless and still.
- Pick out two examples of ‘Tautology’ from the poem.
Pick out one example of the following Figure of Speech.
Antithesis : _____________________.
Pick out from the poem two examples of each.
Onomatopoeia
Pick out from the poem two examples of each.
Inversion
Pick out from the poem two examples of each.
Transferred Epithet
Choose the correct Figure of speech that occurs in the following line. Justify your choice.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever____________
Identify the Figure of Speech in the following line.
They bring me tokens of myself.
Explain the Figure of Speech in the following line.
Rest in the bottom lay-PUN because _________________.
Explain the Figure of Speech in the following line.
Bestow this jewel also on my creature-METAPHOR because ______________________.
‘Pun’ can be defined as a play on words based on their different meanings. Example: ‘Writing with a broken pencil is pointless.’ In this poem, there is an example of Pun. Find and make a sentence of your own. Share a joke with the class where the use of ‘Pun’ creates humour.
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 ______
Alliteration is the occurrence of the same sound at the beginning of words in a phrase, sentence, etc. such as ‘That life is lived it's very best.’
Find out more examples of Alliteration from other poems in your book.
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”
Identify the Figures of speech used from those given in the bracket.
(Simile/ Repetition/ Antithesis/ Personification/ Metaphor/ Alliteration/ Apostrophe)
“And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise”
Identify the Figures of speech used from those given in the bracket.
(Simile/ Repetition/ Antithesis/ Personification/ Metaphor/ Alliteration/ Apostrophe)
With worn-out tools ____________.
Pick out line that contain the following Figures of Speech.
Personification
Complete the following example of Hyperbole using words from the bracket below.
The hungry man ate a ____________ of food.
Complete the following example of Hyperbole using words from the bracket below.
Brrrr..! I am freezing to ____________.
Pick from the poem lines which contain the Figures of speech.
Interrogation
The Figure of Speech ‘Apostrophe’ exists throughout the poem. Pick out the line where the poet directly addresses.
the dead Captain
- ____________
- ____________
The Figure of Speech ‘Apostrophe’ exists throughout the poem. Pick out the line where the poet directly addresses.
the grief in his heart
- ____________
- ____________
Find from the poem, one example of the following.
Repetition
