CLASS 12 POEMS ---FIGURES OF SPEECH

 

• Alliteration: It is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. e.g. “we will count”, “sudden strangeness”, “stop for one second”, “his hurt hands”, “clean clothes”.
• Repetition: It is the repetition of phrases in the poem for poetic effect. e.g. “without rush, without engines“.
• 
  
• Antithesis: It is  the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas. e.g. “count to twelve and we will all keep still”. Here counting and keeping still are contrasting activities and are put together.
• Personification: it is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things and animals. e.g. “Earth can teach us as when everything“.
• Metaphor: It is used to make a comparison between two things that aren’t alike but do have something in common. e.g. “shade” refers to protection.
• Enjambment: It is the continuation of a sentence to the next line/stanza. In the poem, many sentences continue to multiple lines. e.g. “Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still.”, “For once on the face of the Earth let’s not speak in any language, let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much.” etc.
• Following poetic devices have been used in the poem My Mother at Sixty Six
• Simile: it is the comparison of two things by using as or like. e.g. “her face ashen like that of a corpse”, “as a late winter’s moon”.
• Metaphor: it is the direct comparison of two things without the use of as or like. e.g. “the merry children spilling”.
• Personification: When we give human characteristics to animals or plants or non-living things. e.g. “trees sprinting”
•  Repetition of a word or phrase to create a poetic effect in a poem. e.g. the poet repeats these words, “smile and smile and smile”.
• Alliteration:It is the repetition of consonant sounds in a line of a poem. e.g. “my mother”, “that thought”, “I said was, see you soon”.
• 
  

• .”