Answer to Question #196672 in English for Sphephile Ntuli

Question

Select a poem and copy poem into your assignment. Identify examples of assonance, alliteration, metaphor, simile and personification in the poem. Then describe how would you explain the effect these examples of figurative speech have to a learner. How would you adapt your approach if your learners have different cultural backgrounds?

Answer 1

“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay - 1889-1948

If we must die—let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;

Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Utility of metaphor.

For example, "we feel like we've "lost" a part of ourselves," which has been applied to demonstrate precisely the condition that has been experienced without concealing any bit the evidence.

Utility of simile.

For instance, "let it not be like hogs." The simile has been employed to pass some gen; however, the condition that has been experienced has some concealed stuff within the information, which necessitates deep thinking.

Utility of Assonance.

For example, "dying fighting back" has been employed to improve musicality within the poem.

Utility of Alliteration.

For example, "must meet and death deathblow," has been employed to improve male dominance in the literary piece. 

Utility of personification.

For example, "Death is talking to people in a loud voice." The instance has been employed to validate that death has been offered a human personality of speaking. Precisely speaking in a vulgar voice.

The following symbolic speech will be effortlessly assumed when one visibly realizes and appreciates what the poem talks about.

Students with different ethos will become accustomed to;

1. With creative Writing.

2. Scrutinize figurative language in movies and plays.

3. Deliberate on figurative language in poems and songs.