Poetry Practice CH 6 Fig Lang 2 PDF
Poetry Practice CH 6 Fig Lang 2 PDF
Perrine Questions:
1. What “easy figure” (11) of speech is presented by such language as “prow” (1), “chain hauled over a gunwale” (6), “cargo” (8), “passage”
(9)? What is being compared to what? Why would “the writer” – either the daughter or the speaker – be justified in rejecting that figure?
2. The daughter seems to be rejecting both the figure of speech and the thought that it represents (11). Why might the thought be as
unacceptable as the figure that expressed it?
3. Lines 16 through 30 develop the image of the trapped starling. Why should it be interpreted as a symbol? How is its meaning more
complex than that of the figure developed in lines 1-15?
4. The poem symmetrically divides into two 15-line units, each developing a different figure of speech. What is the function of the
additional three lines with which the poem ends?
Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 10th edition, compiled by A. Carter, 2016