Questions 2 and 3 Identification and Analysis ENG2D Exam Practice Questions 2 and 3 Identification and Analysis

Points to Note Explain the effectiveness of the poetic device the way you learned to do in the course, not by paraphrasing the line. Quote only the words and phrases that are absolutely necessary. Embed quotations smoothly and grammatically into your sentences; use parenthetical references to the line number(s); and put a slash to indicate line breaks in the poem.

Explaining the value of the Device Super-important: You do not answer the question by saying what the speaker is saying. You would not say that the personification in the poem, “Ah loneliness / How would I know / Who I am / Without you?” (1-4) helps to communicate the poet’s meaning because the speaker is saying that she needs to be alone with herself to get to know herself. This is a negative example. Don’t say what the poet is saying. You already did that in the paraphrase. You’re supposed focus your answer on the effectiveness of the use of personification, i.e. the poetic device.

Apply what you did with the figures of speech in Romeo and Juliet. The personification of loneliness in the statement, “Ah loneliness / How would I know / Who I am / Without you?” (1-4) is effective because we normally think of loneliness as something to avoid. We associate it with sadness, even depression. However, loneliness in this poem is treated as a friend, a person you want to have around from time to time because he/she can help you get to know yourself.

What did you see? The answer talked about personification throughout because it commented on the associations of the vehicle (i.e., loneliness is begin compared to a nice person, not a killjoy) and, since the vehicle of the personification is a person, the answer characterizes that person and states the speaker’s attitude towards him/her. Personification was related to the theme (message of the poem). You saw that since personification is a type of metaphor, the associations and connotations of the vehicle (image) were listed, just as you did during the Romeo and Juliet unit. Let’s look at another set of answers...

Please don’t give a generic one-size-fits-all answer. Here’s a poor answer: The poet uses apostrophe effectively in the poem, “Ah loneliness / How would I know / Who I am / Without you?” (1-4) because it really makes the concept of loneliness stand out. It emphasizes the need for loneliness. It showcases the issue of loneliness. It helps to communicate the poem’s meaning because it brings the idea of loneliness to life! NOTE: You can write this answer without even knowing what apostrophe is. So what would you say?

Let’s try something like this. Emma Laroque uses apostrophe effectively in the poem, “Ah loneliness / How would I know / Who I am / Without you?” (1-4) because her speaking directly to the concept of loneliness shows her confronting and embracing a threatening feeling. As she faces loneliness head-on, her tone is friendly, not angry, sad, or adversarial, portraying acceptance and an ability to turn a negative into a positive. Her addressing the feeling directly shows strength of character. She is not one to shrink away from something that most people disdain. She is not ignoring or denying it by finding a person to talk to. Furthermore, like a person who talks to themselves, this speaker is a person in the act of thinking. Her thinking about this feeling by talking to it shows the value of thinking: thinking can cause one to come up with a unique idea like seeing the benefit of a feeling that makes most people depressed.

How about paradox The poet creates an effective paradox in the poem, “Ah loneliness / How would I know / Who I am / Without you?” (1-4) because it conveys a wise message through illogical imagery. If the speaker is speaking to someone she sees as a friend, she isn’t alone; therefore, how can she be lonely enough to reflect on loneliness if she needs loneliness to reflect and find her self. If, on the other hand, we take into consideration the fact that this is merely a figure of speech, then, although she seems to be talking to loneliness, she’s actually just talking or thinking to herself. Loneliness, then, is a part of her self. Since she likes and understands loneliness, she is keeping herself company; she’s alone with her self, and quite fine with that and, therefore, alone, but not lonely. However, she implies that she needs loneliness to reflect and find her self. Either way, this paradox effectively communicates sense of contentment through a philosophical journey. Similarly, the poem’s theme attributes a psychological sense of identity that comes with time alone.

You probably won’t get a poem containing a paradox... ... for obvious reasons. You won’t get such a short poem either.

You try. Can you see any other rhetorical devices in that poem?

Rhetorical Question? How would you explain the value of using a rhetorical question in this poem?

Conclusion Ideally, the wording of the commentary indicates that you know what the poetic device is, you know the specific characteristics of the poetic device that distinguish it from other poetic devices, and you can relate its value in one statement to the overall meaning of the poem.