Name: Date: Period:
Elements of Literature
Figures of Speech
Using complete sentences , answer the following questions about Abraham Chang poem “Folding Won Tons
In” (p. 433).
1. List all the steps the speaker follows as he makes the won tons: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h.
2.
What does the speaker do with the won tons after they’re made?
3. Imagine that you are the poet. Which image in this poem would you feel most pleased with?
Why does it especially please you?
4. This poem is full of figures of speech that create vivid images. List all the figures of speech you find in this poem---all the things that the won tons are compared to. a. b. c. d.
How does the speaker feel about his won-ton soup?
Answer the following questions about Emil Dickinson’s poem “’Hope’ is the thing with Feathers” (p. 435) and
Juliet S. Kono’s poem “Internment” (p. 437).
1. Dickinson uses a metaphor that compares hope to a bird. Where does the bird perch?
Under what conditions has the speaker heard it sing?
2. What does hope (or the bird) ask for in return for its song?
3. A gale is a strong wind. What do you think the gale symbolizes , or stands for, in this poem?
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4.
5.
6.
7.
Think of all the ways Dickinson extends the metaphor
. How is hope’s song endless?
How does it keep you warm?
How do you interpret what the speaker says about hope in the last stanza (lines 9-12)?
In the first stanza of “Internment”, what events happen to the girl before she falls asleep? a. b. c.
Describe the place where she finds herself upon waking.
What words in the first stanza have connotations that suggest that Kono is comparing the imprisoned travelers to cattle?
Find the simile in the second stanza that restates this comparison.
How do these words help you to understand the girl’s feelings?
In Kono’s poem, what does the girl see that she considers beautiful?
Whys is she reluctant to find beauty in her situation?
8.
9.
3.
4.
10. What could the dewdrops in Kono’s poem symbolize, or stand for? (Consider the significance of the fact that the fragile dewdrops are “impaled” on the barbed wire but are still golden.”)
Answer the following questions about Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” (p. 440) and Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and
Ice” (p. 441).
1.
2.
What animal does Sandburg compare the fog to?
How do you know?
What part of the animal’s body does he mention?
What does the animal do?
What qualities does the fog share with the animal in Sandburg’s poem?
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5.
6.
According to the speaker in “Fire and Ice,” what disagreement do some people have about how the world will end?
Which side of the argument does the speaker agree with?
7.
8.
How would you define desire as Frost uses the word in his poem?
How is desire like fire?
How could desire bring on the end of the world?
Why would the speaker feel that hate and ice have something in common?
How could hate cause the destruction of the world?
Using complete sentences , answer the following questions about William Shakespeare’s poem “The Seven
Ages of Man” (p. 444-445).
1. In Shakespeare’s famous metaphor that compares the world to a stage, what does he compare men and women to?
2. Shakespeare uses an extended metaphor when he has Jaques describe a person’s life as though it were a play made up of seven (7) acts. Name those seven (7) acts. a. b. c. d. e. f. g.
3. In this monologue, what images help you picture childhood (the first two (2) acts) as Jaques sees it?
What simile describes the schoolboy’s attitude toward school?
How do you think Jacque feels about infants and schoolboys?
Using complete sentences , answer the following questions about Alice Walker’s poem “Women” (p. 448).
1. What generation of women does the speaker describe?
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2. List three (3) things that these women tried to obtain for their children. a. b. c.
3. How did they go about obtaining what they knew their children needed?
4.
5.
In lines 12-18, Walker uses an implied metaphor , suggesting rather than stating a comparison. What does she compare the women to?
What is the speaker’s tone , her attitude toward these women?
What words or phrases in the poem help you identify the speaker’s tone?
Using complete sentences , answer the following questions about Richard Wilbur’s poem “Boy at the Window”
(p. 451).
5.
6.
1.
2.
The first stanza focuses on the boy. Where is he?
Why does the boy feel so sad that he weeps?
3. The second stanza focuses on the snowman. Why is the “man of snow” content?
4. What word in the last line reveals why the snowman feels sad for the boy that he weeps?
Which words in line 4 personify the weather conditions as a threatening person or animal?
What words might a television weather reporter use to describe the same conditions?
What details in the poem personify the snowman?
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