Question

"Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast." What kind of figurative language is being used. What does the image mean?

Answer 1

Answer:

The figurative language used is that of a metaphor and an alliteration.

The image means that the African-Americans have a bright, a much more better future, a new beginning away from their painful past.

Explanation:

The given line of poetry is from James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing". The poem talks about the happiness and feelings the African-Americans have in their freedom from slavery and oppression.

Figurative language in any literary work refers to the words that are used in expressing or convey the meanings of what the writer intends to. The line "Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast" is both a metaphor and alliteration. Alliteration is the use of the same letter at the beginning of the word (where/white) and a metaphor is a technique of making comparisons without directly referring to it. Here, the metaphor is used to refer to the new beginning, a hopeful beginning, different from the suffering and oppression of the past.

Thus, the image means there is a new beginning to look forward to, a new hope away from the pain and oppression of the past.