Figurative Language: Poetry
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AP English Literature and Composition › Figurative Language: Poetry
Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)
1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
9 Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
10 But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12 Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
13 Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
The major extended metaphor of the sonnet is the poet representing himself as .
a captured city
an unwilling bride
an exhausted laborer
a viceroy
a prisoner
Explanation
The major extended metaphor of the sonnet is the poet representing himself as a captured city, as he is "like an usurp'd town" (line 5), until the typical sonnet turn in line 9.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
The concrete metaphor "by sun and candle-light" (line 6) very likely represents .
day and night
good and bad
left and right
reason and faith
knowledge and ignorance
Explanation
The concrete metaphor "by sun and candle-light" (line 6) very likely represents day and night, as the speaker loves ceaselessly throughout the day and night.
- One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
- But came the waves and washed it away:
- Again I wrote it with a second hand,
- But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
- Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay
- A mortal thing so to immortalize,
- For I myself shall like to this decay,
- And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
- Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise
- To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
- My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
- And in the heavens write your glorious name.
- Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue,
- Our love shall live, and later life renew.
Time is symbolized by what in the poem?
The waves
The poet's verses
The beloved's name
The heavens
Decay
Explanation
Time is symbolized by the waves. Each time the poet writes the beloved’s name in the sand, the waves erase it, just as time eventually erases every living thing. Decay \[line 7\] is a consequence of time, but it is not used as a symbol for it. The beloved’s name is at first seen as a victim of time, but again, it does not symbolize time itself. The poet's verses are the agent by which time and death will be defeated.
Passage adapted from Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 75" (1594)
I saw thee once—once only—years ago:
I must not say how many—but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven, (5)
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe— (10)
Based on context, what is the “silvery-silken veil of light” (line 6)?
A moonbeam
Candlelight
A metaphor for the addressee’s radiance
A metaphor for the speaker’s sudden epiphany
The addressee’s clothing
Explanation
This question requires reading all the way back to line 3, where the sense of the sentence originates: “…from out / A full-orbed moon… There fell a silvery-silken veil of light…” The only light that falls from the moon is moonbeams.
Passage adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” (1831)
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, (5)
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
According to the text, what does the “forest” (line 2) represent?
Frightening but ill-defined turmoil
Death
A midlife crisis
Exodus to a strange land
Negative thinking
Explanation
We can see in lines 4-5 the speaker’s difficulty in naming what the forest represents: “how hard a thing it is to say / What was this forest savage, rough, and stern.” We can also see that this forest is barely less bitter than death. This implies that the forest, while frightening, is not itself death. There is less textual support for midlife crisis, exodus, or negative thinking.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
The following can be described as a spatial metaphor:
"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach," (lines 2–3)
"I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;" (line 7)
"I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints" (lines 11–12)
"I love thee to the level of everyday's / Most quiet need," (lines 5–6)
"I love thee with the passion put to use / In my old griefs," (lines 9–10)
Explanation
"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach," (lines 2–3) can be described as a spatial metaphor, as the speaker depicts his or her love occupying the same 3-dimensional space as his or her soul's reach.
A Late Walk
1 When I go up through the mowing field,
2 The headless aftermath,
3 Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
4 Half closes the garden path.
5 And when I come to the garden ground,
6 The whir of sober birds
7 Up from the tangle of withered weeds
8 Is sadder than any words
9 A tree beside the wall stands bare,
10 But a leaf that lingered brown,
11 Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
12 Comes softly rattling down.
13 I end not far from my going forth
14 By picking the faded blue
15 Of the last remaining aster flower
16 To carry again to you.
Which of the following is a simile?
"Smooth-laid like thatch" (line 3)
"sadder than any words" (line 8)
"the wall stands bare," (line 9)
"The headless aftermath," (line 2)
"the tangle of withered weeds" (line 7)
Explanation
"Smooth-laid like thatch" (line 3) is the simile; a simile is a figure pf speech in which two seemingly unlike things are compared using "like" or "as." Usually the words indicate two things that have some similar quality, however, although this may not be immediately evident. In this instance, the "mowing field" (line 1) is like "thatch" (line 3).
1 Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer;
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
5 But reckoning Time, whose million'd accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
9 Alas, why, fearing of Time's tyranny,
Might I not then say 'Now I love you best,'
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
13 Love is a babe; then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow?
(1609)
Which of the following phrases from the poem is the best example of a metaphor?
"Love is a babe" (line 13)
"my judgment knew" (line 3)
"certain o'er incertainty" (line 11)
"Time's tyranny" (line 9)
"My most full flame" (line 4)
Explanation
A metaphor is a direct comparison or identification of two things that are not literally the same. It is similar to another literary device, the simile, but unlike the simile does not use the comparing words "like" or "as."
"Love is a babe" is the only answer that directly compares two things. "Love" is compared to "a babe."
"Time's tyranny" (line 9) is an example of personification.
"My most full flame" (line 4) is a figurative way of describing love, but does not contain a direct comparison of two things and so is not the best example of a metaphor. ("My love is a flame" would be a good example of a metaphor. "My love is like a flame" would be a good example of a simile.)
Passage adapted from Shakespeare's "Sonnet 115" (1609)
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,(5)
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;(10)
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Based on context, what is the meaning of “antique land” (line 1)?
Kingdom from antiquity
Country full of antiques
Nation famed for its longevity
Secret place only discussed in old writings
Country of little importance
Explanation
We know from later lines in the poem that this antique land’s monuments are now in ruin and that its rulers are long dead, which helps us rule out some of the choices. We are looking for the answer that best describes a once-great empire, and “kingdom from antiquity” is the best fit.
Passage adapted from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” (1818)
I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. (5)
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
The speaker uses figurative language of all but which of the following types?
Religious
Agrarian
Avian
Domestic
Medicinal
Explanation
The speaker uses agrarian terms with the mention of “vineyards” (line 6). We see an avian reference with the comparison of the lover’s eyes to “doves’” (line 7). We have medicinal references with the herbs “spikenard,” “myrrh,” and “camphire” (lines 4, 5, 6). Lastly, we have domestic language with the description of the bed, house beams, and rafters (lines 8-9).
Passage adapted from the “Song of Solomon,” King James Bible.