• Alliteration:

Alliteration is a literary device in which certain sounds are repeated at the beginning of words in a sentence or phrase.

The poetess has used this poetic device in the following lines.

fairy folk,

child-feet chanced

swift silver

startled shining, silent,

Brown birds.

• Allusion:

The epigraph of this poem is taken from W.B. Yeats love lyric named “The White Birds”.

 I have read somewhere that the birds of fairyland

 are white as snow. — W. B. Yeats

• Anaphora:

Anaphora is a literary device that uses the repetition of short phrases or single words at the beginning of clauses or sentences to enhance rhythm.

The poetess has used this poetic device in the following lines.

I followed two swift silver wings;

   I stalked a roving song;

I startled shining, silent things;

   I wandered all day long.

In this stanza all the four lines begins with the word “I”. It is used for the sake of emphasising the speaker.

• Metaphor:

Metaphor is a literary device where two unrelated objects are compared to each other.

The poetess has used this poetic device in the following lines.

Burn stars for candlelight;

The poetess has compared the stars to candles.

• Personification:

Personification is a poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects are given human qualities.

The poetess has used this poetic device in the following lines.

Where every wind and leaf can talk,

But when it seemed the shadowy hours

   Whispered of soft-foot night,

As the poem is about fairyland, the poetess has personified all the animate objects like trees, wind, night.

Across the Border Summary

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