POETIC DEVICES IN POEMS(XII)

Compiled by Mrs. Shivani Singh, PGT ENGLISH, APS DELHI CANTT

S.NO. POEM DEVICE LINES EXPLANATION

1. My Mother at sixty- six Simile 1. Her face ashen like a corpse

2. As a late winter’s moon
- Kamala Das

Metaphor 1. Trees sprinting Comparison of the vivacity of youth and life as

2. Merry children spilling out of their homes opposed to the decay of old age and death.

Personification 1. Trees sprinting

Repetition 1. Smile and smile and smile

Imagery Merry children spilling out of their homes

2. An elementary school Simile 1. Like rootless weeds – simile

classroom in a slum 2. Like bottle bits
3. Shut upon their lives like catacombs
- Stephen 4. So blot their maps as big as slums
Spender

Metaphor 1. Paper-seeming boy 1.Lack of proper nutrition makes him very thin
and malnourished.
2. Rat’s eyes 2. Hungry, fearful, curious, insecure, searching
for food.

3.The poor boy has inherited not just his

3. Father’s gnarled disease father’s disease.

4. Squirrel’s games 4 & 5. Depicts a child's innocent desire to play

freely without the burden of poverty.

5. Tree room

6. future’s painted with a fog

6. poverty and lack of good education makes
their future bleak/ dull/ dim.
7. a lead sky

8. stars of words 7. their lives are dark without any hope (lead=
bluish grey)

9. spectacles of steel
8. possibilities provided by good education.

9. denotes their impoverished state because

they are heavy / overused/ damaged/
 10. the white and green leaves open discarded/ later repaired

10. education should improve their lives and

brighten their future

Visual Imagery 1. ‘And show the children to green fields, and make
their world
Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white and green leaves
open

History theirs whose language is the sun’

2. Gusty waves, rootless weeds and the paper

seeming boy, Twisted bones

3. Bottle bits of stone

4. Ships and suns
 5. Gold sands

Symbol 1. Open- handed map

2. Future’s painted with fog
3. Sour- cream walls- abject poverty and neglect
4. Civilized domes
5. Tyrolese valley- beauty and freshness
6. History is theirs whose language is the sun

Anaphora Run azure… run azure

3. Keeping Quiet Antithesis Count to twelve …. Keep still

By Pablo Neruda

Pun arms Weapons, arms

Anaphora Let’s not… repetition to create a bond with the reader

and stress his point.
Let’s not…

Symbol 1. Count to twelve 1. A measure of time- markings on the

2. Fishermen clock, twelve active working hours and
3. Brothers twelve months of a year
4. Earth 2. Selfish nature of humans
5. Cold sea 3. Mankind
4. Earth can teach us as when everything
 (Just as earth, the greatest creator) in

its sleeping mode appears to be dead

on surface but is actually dormant
and carefully preserving the seeds of life,
human beings too need to keep still and quiet
to rejuvenate and awaken the life forces
within and be productive.

5. The coldness of the sea is symbolic of

the frigidity of the fishermen. They are
heartless since they exploit marine life
to fulfil their own purposes

Transferred Cold sea The word ‘cold’ is applied to the lack of

epithet feelings of the fishermen who exploit natural
resources to earn money.

Alliteration Sudden strangeness

Metaphor 1. Clean clothes 1. Fresh perspective and a healthy

2. In the shade outlook-

The poet says that quiet introspection will

make us comprehend the destructive nature
of wars. Man

would shed his blood soiled clothes and don

 on clean clothes i.e. he would cleanse his soul,
heart and mind, purging it of all anger and

hatred.

2. Peaceful existence- just as shade

protects us from the harsh sun, we
will protect and shelter each other as
brothers, thus live in peace

Euphemism I want no truck with death He doesn’t want to associate himself with
death and stagnation.

4. A Thing of Beauty is a Metaphor 1. bower quiet 1. Refers to a quiet shady spot in a

Joy Forever – John 2. sweet dreams garden
Keats 3. wreathing a flowery band 2. Peaceful sleep
4. pall 3. Connecting to nature
5. endless fountain of immortal drink 4. A covering like a shroud
5. Deeds by great men which act as
source of inspiration for everyone.

Alliteration noble natures; cooling covert; band to bind

Imagery flowery bands, shady boon, daffodils in green world, clear

rills, cooling covert, grandeur of dooms, endless fountain
 of eternal

drink

Symbol simple sheep ( men are the symbols who are guided by refers to mankind as Christ is the shepherd
beautiful things to peace and happiness away from the who guides mankind away from the path of
miseries of life ) sins and onto the path of redemption.

Transferred gloomy days;

Epithet
unhealthy and o’er darkened ways

oxymoron Mighty dead

5. Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers- Alliteration- Finger’s fluttering; prancing proud; chivalric certainty;
Adrienne Rich weight of wedding band
. 

Visual imagery Main image: Aunt Jennifer as a fearful wife

Magnificent tigers

Figurative
language to
Images of precious substances throughout the poem:
explain
something that topaz, ivory, gold of the wedding ring
creates a
mental image.
Bright topaz denizens; world of green

Fluttering fingers: image of a bird flapping its wings

Ringed with ordeals: to express the struggles of aunt

Jennifer and the oppression she suffers and feels so
burdened by her marital constraints that they seem like
an ordeal to her

Irony ● Tigers drawn by Aunt Jennifer are bold while the

creator is weak

● It is ironical that Aunt Jennifer’s creations- the

tigers will continue to pace and prance freely,
while Aunt herself will remain terrified even after
death, ringed by the ordeals she was controlled
by in her married life
 ● The ring should make the Aunt protected and
loved but instead it enslaves or terrifies her.

Pun 1. Ring (as an adjective) in her finger which sits

heavily on her hand indicated entrapment. As
the ring encircles the finger, similarly, aunt
Makes use of Jennifer’s husband has encircled her in his
words that have clutches. Even in her death, the ring on her
more than one finger will remain as a testament of her
meaning unhappy marriage in which she was trapped,
encircles and surrounded.
2. Ringed (as a noun) also refers to the wedding
ring which brings husband and wife into
AND
matrimony forever. Here ring is a symbol of
the sacred bond of marriage (stands for love
and protection)
That sound
similar in
meaning

Symbol 1. Wedding band 1. - symbol of oppression in an unhappy

2. Ringed marriage. Its weight refers to the
3. Aunt Jennifer burden of gender expectations.
Refers to the 4. Tigers 2. means encircled or trapped, losing
use of an 5. Yellow (bright topaz). individuality and freedom.
object, figure, 6. Embroidery 3. - a typical victim of male oppression in
event, situation 7. Aunt (last stanza) an unhappy marriage, who suffers loss
or an idea to 8. Uncle of individuality, dignity and personal
represent 9. Men beneath the tree- predators freedom silently. She becomes
something else- 10. Bright topaz- bright- yellowish brown colour of dependent, fearful and frail in a male-
typically it has a the tiger skin dominant society.
deeper meaning 11. Ivory needle 4. - symbolize untamed free spirit,
that differs courage, bravery, freedom and
from its factual confidence. Here they stand in
meaning . The contrast/ antithesis to their creator’s
things used for personality. The use of colours implies
symbolism are that Aunt Jennifer tigers and their
called land are more vital and enjoy a sense
‘symbols’. of freedom far greater than her. They
pace and prance freely, proudly,
fearless, confident and
majestic, fearless of men
5. connotes the sun and fierce
energy; green reminds one of spring
and vitality
6. - symbol of creative expression. The
artwork expresses the Aunt’s
suppressed desires and becomes her
escape from the oppressive reality of
her life.
7. – as opposed to Aunt Jennifer. It
shows that she has lost her identity
completely, thus lost even her name.
8. Male chauvinistic mindset.
 9. Men beneath the tree- predators
10. Bright topaz- bright- yellowish brown
colour of the tiger skin
11. Characteristic of the hunting of
elephants for ivory, typically hinting at
the oppression faced by women at the
hands of men.

Metaphor Ringed with ordeals: even death would not free her as
the wedding band, a symbol of oppression, would yet be
on her finger.

Transferred Terrified hands: Her hands are not terrified but her entire
epithet personality is suppressed and frightened. The
atrocities of her husband and the slavery she
‘Pace’ and ‘prance’ are action words. The rhyme mimics is subjected to have created a deep- rooted
the movement of the tigers. fear in her mind. Even death cannot liberate
her from the miseries and chains of her
mental suppression. Humiliating slavery will
continue to haunt her.

Hyperbole Massive weight of the uncle’s wedding band The poet exaggerates the weight of the band
to make a point about the burden of the
relationship she has with her husband, how
dominating he is. The wedding band appears
to be weighing her down and it appears to be
more of a restrain than a symbol of freedom
 and love.

The over-the-top description is meant to

convey the idea that the lady is subjugated
and bound by the social mores. The weight is
more mental than physical

Metonymy Wedding ring- male domination

When
something is
described by
using an object
closely
associated with
it.

A part standing
for an entire
concept

Enjambment Moving over from one line to another without

terminating punctuation mark.

The meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next
without any puntuation

Continuation of sentence beyond the end of a line or

stanza is used in the poem through the words
‘wool/find’..5,6, band/ … 7,8, lie/ Still, ‘made 9, 10/
will…11 , 12

1. Aunt Jennifer’s tigers fluttering through her

wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull
2. When aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.