Question

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Which pair of lines from T. S. Elliot’s "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" is an example of onomatopoeia?


Twelve o'clock.
(Along the reaches of the street
Held in a lunar synthesis,
Whispering lunar incantations)

Dissolve the floors of memory
And all its clear relations,
Its divisions and precisions,
(Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,)
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.

Half-past one,
(The street lamp sputtered,)
(The street lamp muttered,)
The street lamp said,

"Regard that woman
(Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door
Which opens on her like a grin.)

You see the border of her dress
Is torn and stained with sand,
(And you see the corner of her eye
Twists like a crooked pin.")






*Sentences that are in parentheses “()” are the answer choices given*

Answer 1

The street lamp sputtered

The street lamp muttered

Step-by-step explanation:

I'm not 100% sure this is correct. Sorry if it's not.

Answer 2

The answer is 'the street lamp sputtered/the street lamp muttered'.

Step-by-step explanation:

Onomatopeias are the imitation of verbal or non verbal sounds made by the subject or object of an utterance. It's literary figure of speech commonly used to express ideas colorfully in poems or dialogues.

Onomatopeia attracts the readers' attention by appealing to their sense of hearing.

In this particular poem, the sputter of a lamp refers to the popping or sizzling sound old street lamps used to make. Its 'mutter' on the other hand, refers to the murmur lamps made at the moment they were lit.