Question
. Which figure of speech is used in the bolded line in the following excerpt from this poem by Robert Frost? Nothing Gold Can Stay Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay.
A. simile
B. personification
C. onomatopoeia
D. metaphor
ANSWER = D. Metaphor
Lets define our figures of speech!
〜 A simile is a sort of comparison made between two things using the words “like” or “as”.
〜 Personification is the act of giving an inanimate object or animal (any non-human entity) features, traits or abilities of a human.
〜 A metaphor is when a word or phrase is applied to an object or action in which the description is not to be taken literally (it is exaggerated).
〜 Onomatopoeia is the use of words that are intended to describe a sound (ie: “crash”, “bang” etc).
From your example; “Her early leaf’s a flower”, we can see what figure of speech is being used.
Simile
• Does it use “like” or “as” to describe an entity?
Clearly, our phrase uses neither of the above words to do the mentioned intention, so it cannot be a simile.
Personification
• Does it describe a non-human object or thing to have humanlike characteristics?
The phrase uses the noun “her” when referring to Mother Nature, which may count as personification.
Metaphor
• Does the phrase describe something in an exaggerated manner to which it is intended not to be taken literally?
The phrase claims that the “early leaf” IS a flower, which is likely not to be taken literally, but more of a symbolic way of describing beauty.
Onomatopoeia
• Does the phrase describe a sound in the text using a descriptive, spelled-out word such as “thud”?
No, the phrase has no form of sound.
From this brief analysis we can deduce that the phrase “her early leaf’s a flower” is a metaphor and uses some extent of personification.
Hope this helps! :)
