LUBURNUM TOP, GRADE 11, ENGLISH CORE (CBSE) POETIC DEVICES AND SHORT ANSWERS

 

LUBURNUM TOP, GRADE 11, ENGLISH CORE (CBSE)

POETIC DEVISES AND SHORT ANSWERS

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 Literary Devices

1. Alliteration - Repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of two or more consecutive words is called Alliteration. For example

(1) September sunlight

(2) tree trembles

2. Simile – comparison between two things using like or as.

Sleek as a lizard

3. Metaphor – an indirect comparison between two things. Generally, a quality is compared.

(1) “She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up” - the noise created by the movement of the birds is compared to the machine’s noise
(2) “It is the engine of her family.” here the sound is compared to be an engine.
(3) “Showing her barred face identity mask”

4. Personification – the attribution of personal nature characteristics to something non-human

The whole tree trembles and thrills. Here tree trembles like a human being.

 5. Transferred Epithet – the figure of speech where the adverb is transferred to another noun

her barred face identity mask.

See an another example not from your poem.

Cruel bars: The door of the jail is barred with iron rods. It is not cruel. It is a door of the cell. But the poet says cruel bars. The poet gives the feelings of a human being to the door. Is the door is cruel?  How the door becomes cruel? .

Questions and answers

1. What do you notice about the beginning and ending  of  Laburnum top in this poem?

Ans: At the beginning and the ending of the poem, the laburnum tree was standing still and silent just like death-like. It is patiently awaiting gold finches to come and sit on her branches.

2. To what is the bird’s movement compared to?

Ans: The bird’s movement is compared to a lizard because it was abrupt, sleek and alert. It is a simile.

3. Why is the image of the engine represented?

Ans: An engine is the source to run the machine. The bird is compared to an engine because she is the feeding her children. As a machine cannot work without an engine, her family can’t survive without her.

5. What does the phrase “her barred face identity” mean?

Ans: The phrase “her barred face identity ” indicates that the bird’s face becomes her identity and symbol of recognition. The people identify the bird by noticing its barred face. There are some bars on its face

 

6. Find out suitable words from the poem for the followings
1. the sound birds
2. the movement birds

Ans:

i.                        Twitching, chirruping, chitterlings, and  trilling

ii.                        Starts up, flirts out, launches away, trembles and subsides