Read the poem "The Snake" by Emily Dickinson.A narrow fellow in the grassOccasionally rides;You may have met him, — did you not,His notice sudden is.The grass divides as with a comb,A spotted shaft is seen;And then it closes at your feetAnd opens further on.He likes a boggy acre,A floor too cool for corn.Yet when a child, and barefoot,I more than once, at morn,Have passed, I thought, a whip-lashUnbraiding in the sun, —When, stooping to secure it,It wrinkled, and was gone.Several of nature's peopleI know, and they know me;I feel for them a transportOf cordiality;But never met this fellow,Attended or alone,Without a tighter breathing,And zero at the bone.Which statement best describes Dickinson’s use of figurative language in the final stanza?
Answer
A
She uses comparisons to show the speaker’s connection to the snake .
B
She uses a simile to show that snakes are harmless creatures .
C
She uses a metaphor to describe the movement of the snake.
D
She uses exaggeration to emphasize the speaker’s fear of snakes.
Explanation
The speaker says that meeting the snake causes “a tighter breathing” and “zero at the bone,” describing an intense physical reaction of fear. “Zero at the bone” is figurative exaggeration: the speaker is not literally at zero degrees, but uses the image to emphasize how chilled and frightened they feel. So the best choice is that Dickinson uses exaggeration to emphasize the speaker’s fear of snakes.
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