What literary devices can be found in \"The Last Night\" by Sharon Olds? ENGLISH
ID: 129930 • Letter: W
Question
What literary devices can be found in "The Last Night" by Sharon Olds? ENGLISH CLASS
The next day, I am almost afraid.
Love? It was more like dragonflies
in the sun, 100 degrees at noon,
the ends of their abdomens stuck together, I
close my eyes when I remember. I hardly
knew myself, like something twisting and
twisting out of a chrysalis,
enormous, without language, all
head, all shut eyes, and the humming
like madness, the way they writhe away,
and do not leave, back, back,
away, back. Did I know you? No kiss,
no tenderness–more like killing, death-grip
holding to life, genitals
like violent hands clasped tight
barely moving, more like being closed
in a great jaw and eaten, and the screaming
I groan to remember it, and when we started
to die, then I refuse to remember,
the way a drunkard forgets. After,
you held my hands extremely hard as my
body moved in shudders like the ferry when its
axle is loosed past engagement, you kept me
sealed exactly against you, our hairlines
wet as the arc of a gateway after
a cloudburst, you secured me in your arms till I slept–
that was love, and we woke in the morning
clasped, fragrant, buoyant, that was
the morning after love.
Explanation / Answer
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily.
(Answer) This poem is a typical pyramid story. It is built up, and then slowly tapers as it ends. Such a literary device used for a story build up is known as a “climax.” The poet describes in progressive steps the events until culmination. Towards the last few lines of the poem, the poet ends the build up and gradually describes calmer events. This is known as an “anti-climax.” She begins with describing the characters as dragons and she ends with saying that the characters were buoyant the next morning.
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