SHORT ANSWERS - POETRY
QUESTION NO. 25
Answer the following questions. (Poetic Devices of Meaning I)
(i) What do you mean by figurative language?
Ans. Figurative language means language in which figures of speech like similes and metaphors are used to build meaning beyond the literal. It has five different forms; understatement or emphasis, relationship or resemblance, figures of sound, errors and verbal games. For example, "She runs like the wind", "How could she marry a snake like that?"
(ii) What is a literary allusion?
Ans. An allusion is a casual reference to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification. Allusions can originate in mythology, biblical references, historical events, legends, geography, or earlier literary works. For example, "Don't act like a Romeo in front of her." - "Romeo" is a reference to Shakespeare's Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet".
(iii) What is an analogy?
Ans. An analogy is a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it. It aims at explaining that idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar. Metaphors and similes are tools used to draw an analogy. For example, "This flea is you and I, and this / Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is". (The Flea by John Donne)
(iv) What is an ambiguity?
Ans. Ambiguity is a word, phrase or statement which has more than one meaning. Ambiguity leads to vagueness and confusion. For example, "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness", (Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats). "Still here may mean "an unmoving object" or may may be interpreted as "yet unchanged".
(v) What is apostrophe?
Ans. Apostrophe is an exclamatory figure of speech in which the poet addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or personification. For example, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"(vi) What is an allegory?
Ans. An allegory is an extended metaphor in which abstract ideas, concepts and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events in ways that are comprehensible to its viewers, readers, or listeners. For example, George Orwell's novel "Animal Farm" is a political allegory.
(vii) How is a simile different from a metaphor?
Ans. A simile directly compares two things with the help of words "like" or "as". For example, "Her cheeks are red like a rose". Whereas, metaphor identifies something as being the same as some unrelated thing. For example, "All the world's a stage".
(viii) What is personification?
Ans. Personification is an ontological metaphor in which an inanimate object or abstraction is represented as a living person. For example, "No time to turn at Beauty's glace / And watch her feet, how they can dance." (Leisure by William Davies). The poet has personified Beauty.
(ix) What is hyperbole?
Ans. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It is used to create emphasis on a situation. It may be used to evoke strong feelings to create a strong impression, but is not to meant to be taken literally. For example, "I had to wait in the station for ten days - an eternity". (The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad)
(x) Define symbolism.
Ans. Symbolism is the use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level. For example, Blake's tiger symbolizes creative energy, Shelley's wind symbolizes inspiration, Ted Hughes's Hawk symbolizes terrible destructiveness at the heart of nature.
(xi) Define understatement.
Ans. An understatement, the opposite of hyperbole, is a literary device in which a writer or speaker attributes less importance or conveys less passion than the subject would seem to demand. For example, "The desert is sometimes dry and sandy" is an understatement.
(xii) Define irony.
Ans. Irony is a contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen. For example, "The butter is as soft as a marble piece."
(xiii) What is a dramatic irony?
Ans. Dramatic irony is the dramatic effect achieved by leading an audience to understand an incongruity between a situation and the accompanying speeches, while the characters in the play remain of the incongruity. Probably the most famous example of dramatic irony is the situation facing Oedipus in the play "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles.
(xiv) What is imagery?
Ans. Imagery is the use of figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. There are seven kinds of imagery. These include visual, auditory, tactile, thermal, olfactory, gustatory and kinesthetic imagery. For example, "The Woods are lover, dark and deep". (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost)
(xv) What is euphemism?
Ans. Euphemism means using a mild or gentle word or phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one. For instance, saying "Grandfather has gone to a better place" is a euphemism for "Grandfather has died". Frequently, words referring directly to death, unpopular politics, blasphemy, crime, and sexual or excremental activities are replaced by euphemisms.
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