5.16.W - Lesson: Poetry Analysis: Christina Rossetti Flashcards
In the first stanza of “A Birthday,” every other line begins with “My Heart…”. The sound of these lines might remind us of a heartbeat.
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
What is the name of this poetic device?
onomatopoeia
repetition
repetition
What poetic device is italicized in the following lines?
My heart is like a singing bird
My heart is like an apple-tree
My heart is like a rainbow shell
simile
In the second stanza of “A Birthday,” Rossetti describes the vivid dais she wants to decorate to celebrate the return of her love. Her descriptive language engages the reader’s sense of sight as she paints a mental image. What is the name for this poetic device?
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
personification
alliteration
imagery
imagery
Which poetic device is evident at the end of the following lines in “Up-Hill?”
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
rhyme
In “Up-Hill,” the “road” that Rossetti follows is a concrete image that may stand for a larger idea. This idea could be a longer journey Rossetti takes–the journey of life–where she is given rest in the midst of dark times and encouraged by others who have gone before her. The imagery of a road represents something more than itself. What is the literary term for this?
rhyme
foreshadowing
simile
symbol
symbol
“The Love of Christ Which Passeth Knowledge” is told in first person point of view. We see the repetition of the first person pronoun “I.” Consider again the following stanza:
I bore thee on My shoulders and rejoiced:
Men only marked upon My shoulders borne
The branding cross; and shouted hungry-voiced,
Or wagged their heads in scorn.
Who is the speaker of this poem?
Christina Rossetti
Christ the Savior
A dear friend of Rossetti’s
Christ the Savior
Which poetic device is evident in the bolded words from “The Love of Christ Which Passeth Knowledge?”
Who else had dared for thee what I have dared?
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above;
alliteration
imagery
onomatopoeia
rhyme
alliteration
Consider again this stanza from “The Love of Christ Which Passeth Knowledge:”
A thief upon My right hand and My left;
Six hours alone, athirst, in misery:
At length in death one smote My heart and cleft
A hiding-place for thee.
On the cross, Christ is struck to the heart—“in death one smote my heart”—and as a result, He “cleft a hiding-place for thee.” “Cleft” is the past tense form of the verb “cleave.” One definition of “cleave” in the American Heritage Dictionary is “to make or accomplish by cutting, such as cleave a path through the ice.” When Christ’s heart was struck by death, the gap provided a “hiding place” for His children.
His heart is not a literal hiding place, but the protection and care He gives His children is likened to a “hiding place.” A comparison is made to a hiding place without using “like” or “as.” What is the name of this literary device?
alliteration
simile
onomatopoeia
metaphor
metaphor
Which poetic device is on display by the words in bold in the first stanza of “What Does the Donkey Bray About” below?
What does the donkey bray about?
What does the pig grunt through his snout?
What does the goose mean by a hiss?
Oh, Nurse, if you can tell me this,
I’ll give you such a kiss.
rhyme
alliteration
onomatopoeia
imagery
onomatopoeia
Which best describes the tone of “What Does the Donkey Bray About”?
serious
hostile
curious
solemn
curious
