1. I weep like a child for the past.
a. Simile
b. tenor- the past; vehicle- child
c. this simile creates a sorrowful tone through the reference to weeping. The reference to children denotes innocence.
2. Her eye of ice continued to dwell freezingly on mine.
a. Metaphor
b. tenor- her eye; vehicle- the cold iciness of her stare
c. I get a very serious feeling from this metaphor. I get the impression that she is either very angry at the speaker, or intends the speaker some kind of harm. I get the feeling that she is mad (especially since this quote is out of context) from other associations with cold such as the “cold shoulder”.
3. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge.
a. simile / simile
b. tenor- bent double; vehicle- old beggars under sacks / tenor- knock-kneed; vehicle- hags
c. these similes denote a morbid feeling, like death is lingering in the air around the soldiers. The imagery makes me picture a cross between a soldier and a homeless man.
4. This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, / may prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
a. metaphor / metaphor / metaphor
b. tenor- love; vehicle- bud / tenor- summer days or air; vehicle- ripening breath / tenor- the beauty of Juliet; vehicle- a flower
c. These metaphors give off a very sweet, happy, romantic feeling. They do this by referencing summer and flowers, which we associate with brightness and beauty.
5. I love thee freely as men strive for right; / I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
a. simile / simile
b. tenor- free love; vehicle- men striving for right / tenor- pure love; vehicle- men turning from praise
c. These similes give off a very just and righteous connotation through their references to love that is free and pure.
6. She’d come again, and with a greedy ear / Devour up my discourse
a. metaphor
b. tenor- sense of hearing and interpretation; vehicle- a greedy ear
c. This metaphor gives off a spiteful feeling due to the reference to one of the seven deadly sins: greed
7. Her fingers felt like a dead person’s, like an old peach I once found in the back of the refrigerator; the skin just slid off the meat when I picked it up.
a. simile / simile
b. tenor- fingers; vehicle- a dead person / tenor- fingers; vehicle- an old peach
c. these similes are effective because they give the reader a picture of the fingers. The peach is especially useful because it is something that we can all relate to.
8. He watches us from his mountain walls / and like a thunderbolt he falls.
a. simile
b. tenor- falling; vehicle- a thunderbolt
c. the simile provides an image of a man high up, who falls from the sky like thunderbolts. It gives off a very powerful feeling
9. When she paid the coachman, she took the money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut it up like a bite.
a. metaphor / simile
b. tenor- bag; vehicle- jail / tenor- shutting the bag; vehicle- a bite
c. this passage evokes a very up-tight, closed feeling due to the heaviness of the chains and the feelings that come along with words such as “jail”
10. This is the Hour of Lead / Remembered, if outlived, / as freezing persons recollect from the Snow- / First- Chill- then Stupor- then the letting go-
a. metaphor / simile
b. tenor- the time; vehicle- Hour of Lead / tenor- people; vehicle- freezing in the snow
c. I get a very serious feeling from the form of the passage, and a chilling feeling from the words and how they are structured in a metaphor and a simile.
