English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices

English Literature
English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices

Identify the figure of speech employed in the phrase "when you are old and grey".


Read the following poem and answer the question:

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Options:

  1. Oxymoron
  2. Allusion
  3. Pun
  4. Metonymy

Right Answer: Metonymy

In the phrase ‘when you are old and grey’ the word ‘grey’ names the colour of the hair, yet it is used to stand for the whole condition of old age. Naming a thing by one closely associated attribute in this way is metonymy. There is no contradiction in the phrase, so it is not an oxymoron; there is no reference to an external person, myth or event, so it is not an allusion; and no word is used with a double meaning, so it is not a pun. Yeats uses this compact image to open the poem with a picture of physical decline.

This question is part of English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices, which has 17 practice questions with answers.

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