Question

Read these lines from the poem "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa:

My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against morning. I turn
this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn this way—I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
Which best describes one effect of the poet's use of simile in this excerpt?
A. It links two different things that prey on innocent lives: a bad memory and an undeclared war.
B. It depicts the Vietnam War as a stone that heavily weighs on the speaker's conscience.
C. It gives a bird of prey the qualities of a soldier who goes to war to defend his country.
D. It compares the speaker's reflection to a predatory bird that haunts the speaker.

Answer 1

D. it compares the speaker reflection to a predatory bird that haunts the speaker

Answer 2

Answer: D. It compares the speaker's reflection to a predatory bird that haunts the speaker.

The simile is located in the following lines of the poem:

My clouded reflection eyes me

like a bird of prey, the profile of night

slanted against morning.

In these lines, we see that the author is comparing his reflection to a bird of prey. The implication is that both haunt him, and do not let go of him.