Figurative Language in The Bells

The lines, "Hear the loud alarum bells/ Brazen bells!/What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! /In the startled ear of night/How they scream out their affright!" use what type of figurative language?

• Simile

• Metaphor

• Personification

• Onamotopeoia

Answer explanation

Bells cannot tell "tales of terror"--they cannot "scream" and ears cannot be "startled" by themselves.

By using words that sound like the noises that the bells make, the poet is using _______________.

• Onomatopoeia

• similes

• assonance

Answer explanation

Jingle, Tinkle, Twinkle, Ringing, Shriek, Moan, Groan

All of these words (which are repeated) imitate sounds.

What is the effect of the onomatopoeia in the following lines?

What a tale their terror tells Of Despair! How they clang, and clash, and roar!

• It intensifies the loveliness and delicate nature of life

• It reinforces the excitement at the end of life.

• It reflects the harshness and violence of life.

• It emphasizes the daily experiences of life.

Answer explanation

Terror, despair, and clash/clang all have upsetting tones.

Which TWO quotations support your answer to the previous question?

• "time, time, time"

• "crystalline delight"

• "so musically wells"

• "world of merriment"

• "sort of Runic rhyme"

Answer explanation

The other words are either not specifically happy or not happy at all. Look at the words "delight" and "merriment"!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

• Alliteration and Personification

• Metaphor and Internal Rhyme

• Onomatopoeia and Simile

Answer explanation

Alliteration: What-World, Melody-Merriment (repeated first sounds)

Personification: Their melody foretells (melodies cannot tell things)

A word that spells out a sound

• assonance

• hyperbole

• imagery

• onomatopoeia

The repetition of two or more of the same beginning consonant sound close together

• simile

• imagery

• consonance

• alliteration

"To the swinging and the ringing of the bells, bells, bells..."

• metaphor

• simile

• repetition

• onomatopoeia

A comparison of two seemingly unlike things using "like" or "as"

• alliteration

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

A comparison of two seemingly unlike things

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

• hyperbole