RBSE Class 11 English Literature Figures of Speech

Rajasthan Board RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Literature Letter Writing Informal Letters Exercise Questions and Answers.

RBSE Class 11 English Literature Letter Writing Informal Letters

Question 1. 
What is a 'Simile'? Why is it used in poetry?
Answer:
Simile-This is a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two essentially dissimilar things, actions, or feelings. This is done by the use of words such as "like" or "as". For example, Wordsworth's “I wandered lonely as a cloud" and Robert Burns “0, my love is like a red, red rose."

उपमा-यह एक अलंकार है जिसमें विशेष तुलना दो आवश्यक अभिन्न वस्तुओं, कार्यों या भावनाओं पर की जाती है। यह "इस तरह" या "जैसे" शब्दों का प्रयोग करके की जाती है। उदाहरण के लिए वर्ड्सवर्थ की "मैं एक बादल के जैसे अकेला घूमता रहा था" और रॉबर्ट बर्न्स का,"ओ, मेरा प्यार एक लाल, लाल गुलाब की जैसे" है।

Examples --
Some more examples of similes---
As blind as a bat, Eats like a bird. As pure as snow, as strong as an ox. 

Question 2. 
What is a 'Metaphor'? Why is this device used in poetry?
Answer:
Metaphor-It is a figure of speech in which a thing, idea or action is referred to by a word or phrasc denoting some other idea or action, but used to highlight a common factor or characteristic between them. Through a metaphor, an analogy is drawn between two dissimilar things, for instance, Martin Luther's phrase : “A mighty fortress is our God/A bulwark never failing."

रूपकालंकार-यह एक अलंकार है जिसमें एक वस्तु, विचार या कार्य को सन्दर्भित किया जाता है जो कि एक शब्द या वाक्यांश द्वारा किसी विचार या कार्य को बताता है, परन्तु इसे एक साधारण तथ्य को व्यक्त करने या उनके मध्य विशेषता बताने के लिए किया जाता है। रूपकालंकार द्वारा दो असमान वस्तुओं में एक तर्क उत्पन्न किया जाता है। उदाहरण के लिए मार्टिन लूथर का वाक्यांश, "एक शक्तिशाली गढ़ी है हमारा भगवान या साहसी कार्य कभी असफल नहीं होता है।"

Examples : 
Here is a complex metaphor from Stephen Spender
"Eye, gazelle, delicate wanderer
Drinker of horizon's fluid line". 
Some more examples of metaphor where the situation is compared to a real thing
He drowned in a sea of grief.
She is fishing in troubled waters. 
Success is a bastard as it has many fathers, and failure is an orphan, with no takers.

Question 3. 
What is an 'Alliteration' in literature? Give a few examples to support your answer.
Answer:
Alliteration-Alliteration is the repetition of speech sounds in a sequence of nearby words : the term is usually applied only to consonants, and only when the recurrent sound occurs in a prominent position at the beginning of a word or of a stressed syllable within a word. For example, in one of Shakespeare's sonnets “When to the session of sweet silent thought........” ।

अनुप्रास-अनुप्रास शब्द ध्वनियों का एक क्रम में नजदीकी शब्दों में दोहरान है । यह शब्द व्यंजनों पर लागू होता है और के बारंबारता वाली ध्वनि घटित होती है किसी शब्द के प्रारम्भ या शब्द के मध्य बलाघात अक्षरों पर विशिष्ट स्थिति में घटित होती है। उदाहरण के लिए, शेक्सपीयर के एक सोनेट में, “When to the session of sweet silent thought........” इसमें स ध्वनि का बार-बार दोहरान भिन्न अर्थों में किया गया है।

Examples Some common examples of Alliteration are
1. Come see the softer side of sears.
2. Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed and cross. 
3. The soul selects her own society.

Question 4. 
What is 'Onomatopoeia' in figure of speech? Support your answer with examples.
Answer:
Onomatopoeia—In its narrow sense, onomatopoeia is applied to a word, or a combination of words whose sound seems to resemble the sound it denotes : “hiss”, “buzz”, “rattle”, “crackle” etc. Two lines from Tennyson's poem “Come Down, O Maid” are often cited example of onomatopoeia :

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.

ध्वनि अनुकरण-संकुचित अर्थ में, ध्वनि अनुकरण एक शब्द पर लागू होता है या शब्दों का जोड़ा है जिसकी ध्वनि यह व्यक्त करने वाली ध्वनि की भाँति होती है "hiss", "buzz", "rattle", "crackle” आदि का अर्थ बजना होता है। टेनीसन की कविता से दो पंक्तियाँ "ओ मेड, कम डाउन" ध्वनि अनुकरण के उदाहरण के लिए उद्धरित की जाती है

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees. 

Examples
Onomatopoeia is also used by poets to convey their subject to the reader. 
For example, in the last lines of Alfred Tennyson's poem, “Come Down, O Maid, m and n sounds produce an atmosphere of murmuring insects.
.....the moan of doves in immemorial elms, 
And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Question 5. 
What does 'Personification' in a poem mean? Give examples to clarify your answer.
Answer:
Personification - This is a figure of speech in which either an inanimate object or an abstract concept is spoken of as though it were endowed with life or with human attributes or feelings. For instance, in his poem, “To Autumn”, Keats personifies the abstraction, autumn, as a woman carrying on the rural chores of that season.

मानवीकरण-यह अलंकार जिसमें कोई निर्जीव वस्तु या कोई अमूर्त धारणा के बारे में कहा जाता है मानो कि यह जीवन से मानवीय गुणों या भावनाओं से प्रदत्त हो । उदाहरण के लिए “To Autumn” में कीट्स अमूर्त का वैयक्तिकरण करता है जैसेकि एक औरत उस मौसम में ग्रामीण कार्य कर रही होती है।

Examples of Personification 

• Look at my car, she is a beauty, isn't it so?
• The wind whispered through dry grass. 
• The flowers danced in the gentle breeze. 
• Time and tide wait for none. 
• The fire swallowed the entire forest. 

Question 6. 
What is a 'Paradox' in literature? How will you clarify it?
Answer:
Paradox - A paradox is a statement which appears on its face to be selfcontradictory or absurd, yet turns out to have some truth in it. For example, the concluding lines of Donne's sonnet One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

विरोधाभास-विरोधाभास एक वाक्य है जो स्वयं विरोधी या गलत प्रतीत होता है, फिर भी इसमें कुछ सत्य होने से नकारता है। उदाहरण के लिए Donne के सोनेट की सारगर्भित पंक्तियाँ

One short sleep past, 
we wake eternally 
And death shall be no more; 
Death, thou shalt die.
 
Examples 
1. Examples of Paradox in English Literature-In George Orwell's “Animal Farm” one part of the cardinal rule is the statement
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” 

2. Wordsworth's short lyric “My Heart Leaps up When I Behold”, he remembers the joys of his past and says, “Child is the father of the man." 

3. Shakespeare's the tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet”
“The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is Rainbow in her womb”.

Question 7. 
What is the purpose of 'Oxymoron' in literature? Explain it with your examples.
Answer:
Oxymoron-When two contradictory terms are combined or juxtaposed in a compressed paradox, it is called oxymoron; an example is Tennyson's “O Death in life, the days that are no more.” The phrases like “pleasing pains”, “I burn and freeze”, “loving hate” are also examples of the oxymoron.

विरोधाभास-जब दो विरोधाभासी शब्दों को एक किया जाए या पास-पास दबाकर विरोधाभास हो, इसे विरोधाभास कहा जाता है । टेनीसन का एक उदाहरण, “O Death in life, the days that are no more”. 

Examples -- 
There are some examples from daily language, e.g. “Found missing, small crowd, clearly misunderstood, Exact Estimate, same difference, living dead, even odds, etc.

Question 8. 
What is 'Euphemism' in figure of speech? Give examples.
Answer:
Euphemism Euphemism, derived from the Greek “to speak well", is an expression that is gentler or less direct in place of the blunt expression for something disagreeble, unpleasant, terrifying, or offensive. For example, euphemisms like to pass away”, “mortician” are often used in reference to death.

प्रियोक्ति-प्रियोक्ति को यूनानी भाषा से लिया गया है जो "सही बोलने" के भद्र और कम प्रत्यक्ष के स्थान पर कुछ असहमत, दुःखी, डरावना या अपराधिक की स्पष्ट व्याख्या है। उदाहरण के लिए प्रियोक्तियाँ जैसे" to pass away”, “mortician” का सन्दर्भ मृत्यु के लिए किया जाता है।

Examples Examples of euphemisms that fall into this category include :
Differently abled instead of handicapped or disabled. Relocation centre instead of prison camp. On the streets instead of homeless. Pregnancy termination instead of abortion. Adult beverages instead of liquor, Between jobs instead of unemployed.

Question 9. 
What do you know about the device 'Epithet in literature? Support your answer with examples.
Answer:
Epithet—The term ephithet is derived from the Greek "epitheton” signifying "something added”. It denotes an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define the special quality of a person or thing. For example, Keats 's phrase "silver snarling trumpets and Homer's phrases such as “swift-footed Achilles”, “wine-dark sea”, and “rosy fingered dawn”.

विशेषक,गुणसूचक विशेषण-विशेषक शब्द ग्रीक के एपीथेटन से लिया गया है जो कुछ जोड़े गए की विशेषता बताता है । यह किसी विशेषण या विशेषण वाक्यांश को बताता है जो किसी विशेष व्यक्ति का गुण व and on and to forge foment -"silver snarling trumpets at an af acrista "swift-footed Achilles", "wine-dark sea” Bit “rosy fingered dawn”.

Examples -- 

Examples of Epithet are - Rupert Brooke's “Beauty and Beauty

“The earth is crying sweet 
And scattering-bright the air, 
Eddying, dizzying, closing round,
with soft and drunken laughter. 
The underlined epithets help in developing imagery in the mind of readers
“My Struggle for an Education” written by Booker T. Washington.
“There is a school for coloured people.” 
Here coloured used to describe African black people. 

Question 10. 
What is an “Antithesis' in poetry? Explain it with examples.
Answer:
Antithesis - This is a contrast or opposition in meaning emphasised by a parallel in grammatical structure. An example is Alexander Pope's description of Atticus in his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, “Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike”. Another example is in Pope's The Rape of the Lock.
“Resolved to win, he meditates his way
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray." 
विरोधालंकार-यह एक विरोधाभास या विरोध है जो कि अर्थ में व्याकरणीय ढाँचे के समकक्ष जोर दिया जाता है। अलेक्जेंडर पोप का अटीकस का वर्णन जो उसकी पुस्तक Epistle to Dr.Arbuthnot में है "Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike". दूसरा उदाहरण पोप की The Rape of the Lock पुस्तक में है।
“Resolved to win, he meditates his way
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray." 

Examples 
1. The famous drama of William Shakespeare “The Merchant of Venice” Gratiano says,
“And let my liver rather heat with wine
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans”. 

2. Another example is from the speech of Martin Luther King
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”.