Poetic Devices in BSEB Class 12 English Poems

List of Poetic Devices used in BSEB Class 12 English Poems

 

Poetic Devices in BSEB Class 12 English Poems – A “poetic device” refers to anything a poet uses to enhance the literal meaning of their poem. Poetic devices are an essential part of English poetry. It is therefore a tool that significantly enhances a poem’s substance, heightens its feel, or provides the essential rhythm. Let’s have a look at the poetic devices which have been used in BSEB Class 12 English Rainbow Book Poems.

 

Poem 1 – Sweetest Love, I Do Not Goe

 

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem Sweetest Love, I Do Not Goe:

 

  1. Metaphor / conceit– Metaphor is a common poetic device where an object in, or the subject of, a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object. Donne uses a metaphor of his reason and desire to return to his beloved with the sun because the “sun went hence” and is shining again the next day with no “desire nor sense”. He compares himself to the Sun. A similarity is drawn between the beloved’s tears and the poet’s blood.
  2. Paradox– Paradox functions as a means of setting up a situation, idea, or concept that appears on the surface to be contradictory or impossible. The poet uses paradox in the statement where it seems contradictory but it logically makes sense. He highlights that the power of a man is “feeble” and has no potential to “add another hour” to the “good fortune” to make it everlasting but it also happens that the strength of man “teach it art and length” to the good moments and “come bad chance” in one’s lives.
  3. Imagery: The use of imagery makes the reader visualize the writer’s feelings and emotions. He depicts this through an image of the failing and fading of good fortune and one’s inability to “add another hour.” 
  4. Repetition: Repetition is a literary device that involves using the same word or phrase over and over again in a piece of writing or speech. Example in the poem is When thou sigh’st, thou sigh’st not wind, But sigh’st my soul away; 
  5. Rhyme Scheme – abab cddc
  6. Pun – use of a word with double meaning. ‘Spurres’ means motive and a part of something big. ‘Divining’ means heavenly and a perceiving heart
  7. Imagery – visual imagery of synset and sunrise
  8. Hyperbole – Fortune is given a lot of importance, when he says that his blood decays on seeing her cry

Related: Sweetest Love, I Do Not Goe Summary, Explanation, Question Answers 
 

 

Poem 2 – Song of Myself

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem Song of Myself:

  1. Free verse – Free verse is the name given to poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme. Because it has no set meter, poems written in free verse can have lines of any length, from a single word to much longer. The poet has used free verse which enables him to talk to his readers in a new way that is not constricted by rhyme or meter parameters.
  2. Metaphor– Metaphor is a common poetic device where an object in, or the subject of, a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object
    The poet uses a metaphor in the poem, “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass”, he is comparing the grass to “the beautiful uncut hair of graves.”
  3. Personification: Personification is giving human characteristics to animals or non-living things. Here in the poem example of personification is , “I loafe and invite my soul” where the soul is personified
  4. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. Example in the poem are, My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air.
  5. Pun – ‘spear’ has a double meaning of a blade of grass and a weapon
  6. Hyperbole – the poet exaggerates when he says that every atom belonging to me belongs to you
  7. Anaphora – the repeated use of the same word at the start of two or more consecutive lines –
    I loafe and invite my soul,
    I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass
  8. Enjambment – when the same sentence continues to the next line without any punctuation mark at the end of the line.
    I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass
    My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air

Related: Song of Myself Summary, Explanation, Question Answers
 

 

Poem 3 – Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast :

  1. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device that uses symbols, be they words, people, marks, locations, or abstract ideas to represent something beyond the literal meaning. “Prams go rolling on” symbolizes the cycle of life.
  2. Alliteration– It is the repetition of consonant sound in the line. Examples of alliteration in this poem are “falling fast” in the first line of the first stanza and “graves” and “gone” in the third line of the first stanza. 
  3. Rhyme scheme – aabb
  4. Anaphora
    And the nightingale is dumb.And the angle will not come.
  5. Metaphor – ‘whispering neighbours’ – messengers of death compared to neighbours
  6. Enjambment
    Dead in hundreds at the back
    Follow wooden in our track
    Starving through the leafless wood
    Trolls run scolding for their food:
  7. Allusion – the reference to famous person, place or event. ‘Trolls’ are mythological creatures.

Related: Now the leaves are falling fast Summary, Explanation, Question Answers
 

 

Poem 4 – Ode To Autumn

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem Ode To Autumn :

  1. Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is often used to make a point and not to receive an answer. The poet has posed rhetorical questions in the second and third stanzas to emphasize his point such as, “Where are the songs of spring?”
  2. Imagery: The use of imagery makes the reader visualize the writer’s feelings and emotions. Keats’s imagery evokes the perceptions of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and For instance, in the first stanza, he uses visual imagery such as thatch-eyed”; “mossed cottage-trees”; the granary floor”; “plump the hazel shells” and “full-grown lambs.” There is also olfactory (sense of smell) imagery in the second stanza such as, “fume of poppies” and “sweet kernel.” Tactile imagery is used in the last stanzas such as, “clammy cells” and “winnowing wind.”
  3. Personification: Personification is to give human characteristics to nonhuman things. Keats has used personification in the opening lines of the poem:“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;” He personifies the autumn season and the sun by calling them friends as if these abstract things are humans with intimate relations.
  4. Apostrophe: An apostrophe is a device used to call somebody from afar. The poet has used this device in the twelfth line where it is stated as “Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store.” In this line, the poet directly addresses the imaginary character “autumn”.
  5. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. Keats has used a lot of symbols in this poem such as “Autumn” symbolizes the women and “the sun” symbolically stands for a male. Similarly, “gathering swallows” symbolizes the end of autumn.
  6. Simile: A simile is a figure of speech used to compare an object, animal or person with another object or person or animals to make its meaning clear. Keats has used simile in the nineteenth line, “And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep.” Here, he compares autumn with a person who gathers the remaining food from the field.
  7. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, ‘o’ sound in “Among the river sallows, borne aloft.”
  8. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of ‘t’ in “And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue” and ‘s’ sound in “Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers.”
  9. Onomatopoeia – whistles, twitter
  10. Rhyme scheme – ababcdedcce, ababcdecdde, ababcdecdde

Related: Ode To Autumn Summary, Explanation, Question Answers
 

 

Poem 5 – An Epitaph

The poetic device, which is used in the poem, ‘An Epitaph’ is Ambiguity.

Ambiguity is a word, phrase, statement, or idea that can be understood in more than one way. It is commonly used in the sense of light. But in the second line of the poem, the speaker has used it for the beautiful lady moving here and there. Usually, the word light means shiny, but the use of the word light in the second line of the poem is ‘The habit of moving’.

Related: An Epitaph Summary, Explanation, Question Answers
 

 

Poem 6 – The Soldier

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem The Soldier:

  1. Rhyme scheme– ababcdcd , cdecde
  2. Anaphora – when two or more consecutive lines begin with the same word. Lines 2 and 3-
    That there’s some corner of a foreign field
    That is for ever England. There shall be
  3. Personification– Personification is giving human characteristics to animals or non-living things. The personification of England seems to have given life, shaped/built, taught, and loved the soldier; representing England as the position of a mother.
  4. Assonance– Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds across a line of text or poetry. Me, Be and Field, Concealed are the examples of assonance in this poem.
  5. Alliteration– It is the repetition of consonant sound in the line. Examples of alliteration are f in “foreign field,” the play on “rich” and “richer” in the fourth line, blest by.
  6. Consonance– The prominence of a consonant sound in a line- the sonorous b, s, and r sounds of the seventh and eighth lines, and the s, d, l, and h sounds in the last three lines.

 Related: The Soldier Class 12 Summary, Explanation, Question Answers 
 

 

Poem 7 – Macavity the Mystery Cat

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem Macavity the Mystery Cat:

  1. Rhyme scheme – aabbccdd
  2. Personification: Personification is giving human characteristics to animals or non-living things. Here in the poem, Macavity is personified as he does all the things like humans. The poet has personified the cat by using the pronoun ‘he’ instead of ‘it’ for it. 
  3. Anaphora: – Anaphora is the repetition of a word at the start of consecutive lines like
    And – ‘And’ his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
    ‘And’ when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
    Or – ‘Or’ when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
    ‘Or’ the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair
  4. Alliteration: It is the repetition of consonant sound in the line. e.g. “Macavity’s Mystery”, “head is highly”, “side to side” etc.
  5. Symbolism: The poet uses various symbols in the poem. e.g. his appearance symbolises his villainous character, footprints symbolise his name. The poet has called Macavity ‘a monster of depravity’.
  6. Simile: It is a common poetic device in which the subject of the poem is described by comparing it to another object or subject, using ‘as’ or ‘like’. The poet has compared the movement of the Macavity’s head to the movements of a snake.
  7. Allusion– An allusion is when an author or poet makes an indirect reference to some idea, figure, other text, place, or event that originates from outside. The poet is referring to Napoleon in the last line.
  8. Repetition – The poet repeats words and lines in order to emphasize on the seriousness of the issue that Macavity always escapes from the crime scene.
  9. Hyperbole – The use of exaggeration like reference to flying squad, Scotland Yard and fakir

Related: Macavity The Mystery Cat Summary, Explanation, Question Answers
 

 

Poem 8 – Fire-Hymn

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem Fire-Hymn:

  1. Anaphora: Anaphora is the repetition of a word at the start of consecutive lines like ‘The’ is being repeated at the start of both the lines-
    ‘The’ nearest Tower of Silence was a thousand miles –
    ‘The’ firm-hymn said to me, “You stand forgiven,”
  2. Personification: Personification is giving human characteristics to animals or non-living things. Here in the poem, ‘bore witness to the fire’s debauchery’. Poet personifies the debauchery or immoral behavior of the fire.
    3. Enjambment – when a sentence continues in more than 1 line and there is no punctuation mark at the end of the line.

Once strolling at dawn past river-bank and ghat
we saw embers losing their cruel redness
to the grey ash that swallows all, half-cooked limbs

  1. Rhyme scheme– the poem is written in free verse

 

Related: Fire-Hymn Summary, Explanation, Question Answers
 

 

Poem 9 – Snake

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem ‘Snake’ :

  1. Simile – The subject of the poem is described by comparing it to another object or subject, using ‘as’ or ‘like’. Examples are- 
  2. “He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, 
  3. And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do 
  4. And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken, 
  5. For he seemed to me again like a king,
  6. Metaphor – Metaphor is a poetic device where an object in, or the subject of, a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object. Examples are-
  7. “From out the dark door of the secret earth.” Dark door refers to the hole. 
  8. “The voice of my education said to me He must be killed”, “The voice of my education” refers to the poet’s previous lessons concerning the snake. 
  9. Alliteration – Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the start of a series of words in succession whose purpose is to provide an audible pulse that gives a piece of writing a lulling, lyrical, and/or emotive effect. Examples are- 
  10. And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless, 
  11. Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
  12. Personification – Personification is a poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects, are given human qualities – resulting in a poem full of imagery and description. Example – “Sipped with his straight mouth”. The snake is not a man that can sip drinks.
  13. Allusion – Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. Examples are- 
  14. And I thought of the albatross, ​​”Albatross” in the poem refers or alludes to the killing of a bird by a sailor in Coleridge’s epic poem titled “Ancient Mariner”.
  15. Again, “Sicilian July” and “Etna smoking” are equal events in history.
  16. Repetition – Repetition is a literary device that involves using the same word or phrase over and over again in a piece of writing or speech. For example- On a hot, hot day, and I in Pyjamas for the heat.
  17. Anaphora – when consecutive lines start with the same word / words. For example – 

I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!

I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education. 

And I thought of the albatross,

And I wished he would come back, my snake. 

Related: Snake Summary, Explanation, and Question Answers BSEB Class 12 English
 

 

Poem 10 – My Grandmother’s House

Following poetic/literary devices have been used in the poem My Grandmother’s House are as follows-

  1. Simile– Simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as. The poet has used the simile in the poem which are-
  2. My blood turned cold like the moon, 
  3. Lie behind my bedroom’s door like a brooding Dog 
  4. Metaphor– it is a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it

does not denote a similarity. Example is – to peer through blind eyes of windows.

  1. Personification– Personification is a poetic literary device in which non-living things are given human traits. Example is- ‘The house withdrew into silence’, 

Here, the poet uses personification, a house has been personified.

Blind eyes of the windows – window has been personified

 

Related: My Grandmother’s House Summary, Explanation, Question Answers BSEB Class 12 English
 

 

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