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Which figure of speech is used in poem the trees?

Which figure of speech is used in poem the trees?
Adrienne RichCBSE 10thThe Trees

    1 Answer

    2. Poonam Sharma
      literarian

      Following figures of speech have been used in the poem The Trees by Adrienne Rich:

      1. Simile: It is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind using “as” or “like”. In the poem the poet compares trees with newly discharged patients “like newly discharged patients half-dazed, moving to the clinic doors“. In the last stanza, the moon is compared with broken mirror, “The moon is broken like a mirror“.
      2. Personification: It is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human. e.g. “the trees are moving”, “no sun bury its feet”, “all night the roots work” etc.
      3. Metaphor: In the poem, trees symbolise women, forest symbolises freedom, lichens symbolise lesbians, whispers symbolise men’s voice which is patriarchal in nature.
      4. Enjambment: It is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. In the poem, a single sentence continues to more than 1 line e.g. “The trees inside are moving out into the forest, the forest that was empty all these days where no bird could sit no insect hide no sun bury its feet in shadow the forest that was empty all these nights will be full of trees by morning.“
      5. Images: The poet uses different images to strike our senses e.g. visual images (empty forest), auditory images (head full of whispers), olfactory (the smell of leaves and lichens) and tactile (small twigs stiff with exertion).
      6. Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. e.g. “small twigs stiff”, “sky still open”, “leaves and lichen“, “the forest from the house”, “writing long letters” etc.

      Read summary of this poem.

      Read analysis of the poem.

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