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SEC Creative Writing 2023

Semester III
Sneha Sharma & A. Siddharth Sharma

Worksheet 2
Exercise 1: Identify and explain the figures of speech (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.)
in the given poem as suggested by the lines in bold.
Sample 1: “Windy Night” by Jibanananda Das tr. Supriya Chaudhuri

Last night was a night of deep winds – a night of countless stars.

Throughout the night

The expansive wind played round my mosquito-net-
The net swelled at times like the monsoon ocean’s belly;
Sometimes the bedclothes were torn apart
And wished to fly towards the stars.
At times it seemed to me – perhaps in a half-sleep-
The net was not above me;
It was flying like a white heron on the ocean of blue winds,
Brushing Swati’s lap.
Last night was such an amazing night!

All the dead stars woke up – there was no empty space in the sky.

Among those stars I saw the ashen face

Of all the earth’s dead loved ones.
The stars gleamed, as in the dark night
The dewy eyes of the male lover-kite atop the peepul tree.
The vast sky glowed in the moonlight like the bright leopardskin stole
Across the shoulders of a Babylonian Queen.
Last night was such an amazing night!
 2

Exercise 2: Match the columns to create oxymorons and paradoxes and explain them:
Column A Column B
Filthy But some animals are more equal than
others
The Child is Ethics
Civil Glass
Plastic Rich
Business The father of the Man
Fair is foul War
All animals are equal, And foul is fair

Exercise 3: Explain the irony in the following sentences:

A. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in
want of a wife.

B. Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
C. "I swear! I never swear. I detest the habit. What the devil do you mean?"

HOMEWORK: Illustrate the difference between metonymy and synecdoche by finding at

least 3 suitable examples of each.