Match Each Kind Of Figurative Language From A Poem With The
Match Each Kind Of Figurative Language From A Poem With The Same Kind
Match each kind of figurative language from a poem with the same kind of figurative language from the novel The Sweet Hereafter. Use the provided answer options (A, B, C) for each example. The examples are:
- "We sounded like strangers, sitting in a dentist's waiting room."
- "I could hear the bedsprings squeak as he got into bed next to Mom, and soon I heard him snoring."
- "The skeleton of the Ferris wheel...called out to me."
Answer options:
- A. "A Window opens like a Pod"
- B. "At the word, the saw,/As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,/Leaped out at the boy's hand"
- C. "The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard/And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood; Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it."
Paper For Above instruction
The comparison of figurative language in poetry and prose reveals how authors evoke imagery and emotion through similar device types, despite differences in genre. In the short stories and poems, authors utilize metaphors, similes, and personification to deepen their readers' experience and understanding. This essay examines the matching of specific figurative language examples from a poem with those within the novel The Sweet Hereafter, focusing on the shared literary devices and their effects.
The first example, "We sounded like strangers, sitting in a dentist's waiting room," employs a simile—a figure of speech that makes a comparison using "like" or "as." This vivid comparison underscores feelings of alienation, discomfort, and unfamiliarity among individuals, which is common in both poetry and narrative prose. In The Sweet Hereafter, a comparable simile appears in the form "A Window opens like a Pod." Here, the window transforming into a pod employs a simile to evoke imagery of enclosure, potential transformation, or concealment, echoing themes of mystery or change that resonate with the poem's conveyance of emotional distance.
The second poetic example, "I could hear the bedsprings squeak as he got into bed next to Mom, and soon I heard him snoring," uses auditory imagery to evoke the mundane, intimate sounds of daily life. The imagery invites the reader into a private world, emphasizing the atmosphere's quiet and personal nature. In The Sweet Hereafter, the figurative language "At the word, the saw,/As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,/Leaped out at the boy's hand" employs personification—a device where human qualities are attributed to non-human objects. The saw is described as having intent and awareness, which heightens the tension and danger within the scene, much like the poem's focus on sensory detail enhances emotional immediacy.
The third example, "The skeleton of the Ferris wheel...called out to me," employs personification by giving the inanimate Ferris wheel a voice, suggesting a connection between the object and the narrator’s perception. This figurative language imbues the scene with a haunting, almost sentient quality, echoing themes of memory and loss common in poetry and fiction alike. Correspondingly, in The Sweet Hereafter, the phrase "The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard/And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood; Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it," features vivid personification of the saw. The machine is described with aggressive, animal-like qualities ("snarled," "rattled") that evoke a sense of danger and chaos, paralleling the personification of the Ferris wheel.
In conclusion, these examples illustrate how both poetry and narrative prose rely on similar figures of speech—similes and personification—to evoke imagery that enhances emotional resonance and thematic depth. The use of similes provides clear comparisons that build bridges of understanding for the reader, while personification imbues inanimate objects with life, creating a more visceral connection to the text. The parallels in figurative language across genres demonstrate the universality and power of these literary devices in enriching storytelling and poetic expression.
References
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