1.

My mother at sixty-six
Simile: This rhetorical device is used when an overt comparison is made between two different
things. In this poem, the poet uses the device of simile on two instances. When she compares her
mother’s face with that of a corpse and also uses the word “like” while making that comparison. She
again compares her mother with the moon in wintertime and also uses the word “as” while making
this comparison.

Personification: This rhetorical device is used to bestow human qualities on something that is not
human. In this poem, the poet uses the device of personification with respect to trees. She imagines
the trees to be figures that are running alongside her car.

Apostrophe: This rhetorical device is used when a poet addresses his or her poem to an absent
audience. In this poem, the poet uses the device of apostrophe, when she speaks directly to her
mother, addressing her as “Amma”, even though we never see the mother replying to the poet.
METAPHOR: This rhetorical device is used when a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to
which it is not literally applicable. In this poem, the poet uses the device of metaphor in line when
she speaks ‘Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes’ to show the contrary
image of her mother’s age and approaching end.

REPETITION: This rhetorical device is used when a word or phrase is repeated. In this poem, the poet
uses the device of repetition in last line ‘all I did was smile and smile and smile……’ when she had to
subdue her feelings and tried not to show her emotion to her mother. She says she believes that she
will meet her mother again.

2.An elementary school class room in a slum

Simile: It is a literary device used for comparing two unlike things using like or as. e.g. “Like rootless
weeds, the hair torn “, “these children Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
with mended glass, like bottle bits on stones”, “their maps with slums as big as doom”, “shut upon
their lives like catacombs”.

Metaphor: It is a literary device that is used to make a comparison between two things that aren’t
alike but do have something in common. e.g.

gusty waves”, “The paper- seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.”, “sour cream walls”, “all their future’s
painted with a fog”, “sealed in with a lead sky”, “From fog to endless night”, “their time and space
are foggy slum”, “whose language is the sun”.

Repetition: It is the repetition of certain words or phrases in the poem for poetic effect. e.g. “far far
from “, “break O break “.

Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected
words. e.g. “Far far from”, “other than this”, “A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky”, “Surely,
Shakespeare is wicked”, “spectacles of steel”, “bottle bits on stones”, “lives like catacomb”.

Pun: It is a literary device that plays with words that have multiple meanings. e.g. “reciting a father’s
gnarled disease “, “sour cream”, “lead sky”. All these words/phrases have multiple meanings.
Personification: It is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things and animals. e.g.
“civilized dome riding all cities.”. The word ride is used for humans. Here it is used for “civilized
dome”.

Metonymy: It is the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.
e.g. “Awarding the world its world”. World here symbolizes rich people.

Enjambment: It is the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break. e.g. “His eyes live in a
dream / Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.”

3.Keeping quiet
Assonance: Use of vowel sound ‘o’ and ‘e’ (Now we will count to twelve, not move our arms
so much)

Anaphora: Two consecutive lines starting with the word ‘Let’s ‘let’s not speak in any language, let’s
stop for one second,

Alliteration: the repetition of a consonant sound at the start of 2 or more closely placed words. ‘we
will’ – ‘w’ sound is repeated