Question

Read the excerpt of the following poem.

"A Dialogue between Old England and New" By Anne Bradstreet

New England.
Alas, dear Mother, fairest Queen and best,
With honour, wealth, and peace happy and blest,
What ails thee hang thy head, and cross thine arms,
And sit i' the dust to sigh these sad alarms?
What deluge of new woes thus over-whelm
The glories of thy ever famous Realm?
What means this wailing tone, this mournful guise?
Ah, tell thy Daughter; she may sympathize.

Old England.
Art ignorant indeed of these my woes,
Or must my forced tongue these griefs disclose,
And must my self dissect my tatter'd state,
Which Amazed Christendom stands wondering at?
And thou a child, a Limb, and dost not feel
My weak'ned fainting body now to reel?
This physic-purging-potion I have taken
Will bring Consumption or an Ague quaking,
Unless some Cordial thou fetch from high,
Which present help may ease my malady.
If I decease, dost think thou shalt survive?
Or by my wasting state dost think to thrive?
Then weigh our case, if 't be not justly sad.
Let me lament alone, while thou art glad.

Which element of figurative language is the most dominant in this excerpt?

Allusion
Meiosis
Metaphor
Personification

Answer 1

The most dominant element of figurative language in this excerpt is personification. Personification is a figure of speech in which non-human things or abstract concepts are given human characteristics or traits.

In this excerpt, Old England is personified as a person who is suffering from a "malady" and "tatter'd state" and who is "wasting." Old England is also able to "languish" and "sit in the dust" and has a "forced tongue" and "mournful guise." These are all characteristics that are typically associated with humans, and their use to describe Old England gives the country a human-like quality.