Figurative Devices

“Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.”

• Alliteration

• Allusion

• Repetition

• Understatement

Answer explanation

The first three words begin with a repeated 'w' sound: an absolutely amazing alliteration

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

• Hyperbole

• Simile

• Allusion

• Personification

Answer explanation

'Eden' is a reference to the Garden of Eden: a Biblical allusion

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Yet the Man would at once run away with your heart;

And I for five centuries right gladly would be

Such an odd such a kind happy creature as he.

• Hyperbole

• Repetition

• Oxymoron

• Onomatopoiea

Answer explanation

How many of you would be alive to do anything for five centuries? This is too much of an exaggeration- a hyperbole!

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Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink

• Irony

• Allusion

• Understatement

• Personification

Answer explanation

You'd expect that if you were surrounded by water, there would be plenty to drink- most ironic!

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"But outer Space,

At least this far,

For all the fuss

Of the populace

Stays more popular

Than populous"

• Pun

• Onomatopoeia

• Metaphor

• Simile

Answer explanation

Here Robert Frost plays on the words 'populace' and 'populous,' which both sound the same- a pun

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"Hope" is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

• Metaphor

• Allusion

• Alliteration

• Oxymoron

Answer explanation

In one of her most famous poems, Emily Dickinson compares the abstract concept of 'hope' to a bird- the thing with feathers: a metaphor

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How they clang, and clash, and roar!

What a horror they outpour

On the bosom of the palpitating air!

Yet the ear it fully knows,

By the twanging

And the clanging...

• Onomatopoeia

• Oxymoron

• Understatement

• Hyperbole

Answer explanation

Clang, clash, roar, twanging, clanging- these words all sound the same as the sounds the bells make: five examples of onomatopoeia!

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What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Repetition

• Allusion

Answer explanation

A dream deferred (put off, delayed) might dry up like a raisin in the sun or stink like rotten meat- so follow your dreams, and recognize the similes!

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Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

• Imagery

• Simile

• Personification

• Repetition

Answer explanation

Emily Dickinson again- this time she turns the abstract concept into a person, one who kindly stops to wait for her- personification.

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The sky is very sunny.

The children are funny.

Under the tree we sit,

But just for a bit.

• Personification

• Alliteration

• Simile

• Rhyme

Answer explanation

This is a nice easy one for you: sunny rhymes with funny, sit, rhymes with bit.