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ONCE BY THE PACIFIC HOW CAN YOU TELL THAT THIS POEM IS A SONNET? IN LINES 2-6 WHAT FORCES OF NATURE SEEM TO BE PERSONIFIED?

User Harisu
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Answer and explanation:

"Once By The Pacific" is a poem by author Robert Frost. We can tell the poem is a sonnet due to the way it is structured. Sonnets have 14 lines and a regular rhyme scheme. Also, they usually maintain a strict metric, commonly iambic pentameter - a five-time repetition of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one in each line. "Once By The Pacific" has all those characteristics:

The shattered water made a misty din. A

Great waves looked over others coming in, A

And thought of doing something to the shore B

That water never did to land before. B

The clouds were low and hairy in the skies, C

Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes. C

You could not tell, and yet it looked as if D

The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff, D

The cliff in being backed by continent; E

It looked as if a night of dark intent E

Was coming, and not only a night, an age. F

Someone had better be prepared for rage. F

There would be more than ocean-water broken G

Before God’s last Put out the light was spoken. G

As we can see above, the poem has 14 lines and its rhyme scheme is Shakespearean - AABB CCDD EEFF GG. Let's take a look at the first line to confirm the metric:

The shattered water made a misty din.

Iambic pentameter is used. The syllables in bold are the stressed ones. We have 5 pairs of unstressed followed by stressed.

Also, in lines 2-6, water and clouds are personified. Personification is a type of figurative language used to attribute human characteristics - qualities or action - to inanimate objects. The water is described as something that can look and think, while the clouds are described as locks of hair being blown.

User Saharsh Shah
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