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Difficulty: HardAnalysis of Figures of Speech and Literary Devices in Unseen Poetry

Read the unseen poem extract below carefully:

'The midnight sun illuminated the gloom,
And whispered silence through the crowded room;
His victory was a crushing, fatal defeat,
As triumphs withered in the summer heat.'

Which literary device is predominantly employed in line 3?

  1. ParadoxAnswer
  2. B
    Oxymoron
  3. C
    Metaphor
  4. D
    Hyperbole

Answer

Paradox is the primary literary device employed in line 3.
The correct answer is Paradox. Line 3 asserts that 'His victory was a crushing, fatal defeat,' which presents a complete proposition that appears self-contradictory on the surface yet holds a deeper truth regarding a hollow or pyrrhic success.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Examine the targeted line in context.
Line 3 reads: 'His victory was a crushing, fatal defeat'.
Identifying the target line isolates the specific literary structure being analyzed.
2
Analyze the semantic structure of the statement.
The statement asserts that winning (victory) is functionally equivalent to losing (defeat).
Determining whether the contradiction occurs within adjacent words or across a full statement clarifies the device.
3
Differentiate between contradictory devices.
Because the entire sentence contains an apparently self-contradictory idea that resolves into a deeper meaning (a pyrrhic victory), it fits the definition of a paradox rather than a side-by-side word combination (oxymoron).
Distinguishing clause-level self-contradiction from word-level juxtaposition confirms the correct figure of speech.

Key Concept

Distinction between Paradox and Oxymoron in unseen poetic lines
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Analysis of Figures of Speech and Literary Devices in Unseen Poetry

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