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What literary devices are used in Acquainted with the Night?

What literary devices are used in Acquainted with the Night?

1 Answer

  1. Following are the literary devices used in this poem:

    1. Alliteration – It is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same sentence. i.e. “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet.”
    2. Enjambment – It is the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of verse into the next line without a pause. Frost uses it most of the time. For example, “I have passed by the watch on his beat/and dropped my eyes.”
    3. Symbolism – It is the use of anything symbolic to extend a greater meaning. In the poem, “night” comes to symbolise the isolation and loneliness of the speaker; “luminary clock” is the passage of time which stops for nothing.
    4. Metaphor – It is a figure of speech which implies a different meaning apart from its literal meaning. “clock” in the poem is not literal. It stands for the passage of time. “Night” is also an extended metaphor in the poem which means isolation of the speaker and the pessimism which it brings.

    Read:

    1. Summary of Acquainted With the Night
    2. Analysis of Acquainted With the Night

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