Question

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No:
Find the figure of speech
Defination
Example (line from the poem)
Explaination

Answer 1

Explanation:

The opening stanza of “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” sets up the first half of an analogy that will continue in the second stanza. By beginning with the word “As,” the speaker signals that he will be comparing the opening image with something else. This strategy keeps the reader alert through the description, as they wait for the completion of the analogy. The stanza ends with a colon, signaling the end of the image and a transition to the argument.

The opening image presents the death of “virtuous men” who pass away without a fuss, almost unnoticeably. They “whisper to their souls to go,” giving a quiet indication that they accept death. This passing is almost invisible to their friends, who disagree about whether or not it has even happened yet. Donne makes the moral goodness of these men explicit, and this sets up the implication that their way of dying is a positive example.

Donne also uses soft, gentle sounds to underline this image of restraint. The hardest consonant in the stanza is the “p” in “pass.” The rest of the words have mild consonants, echoing the quietness of the described deaths. This stanza also includes a lot of sibilance, with no less than 12 instances of “s” sounds contributing to the image’s hushed atmosphere. When read aloud, sibilance forcibly slows down the poem and lowers its volume. Because “s” is an unvoiced consonant, it forces the reader to “whisper” along with the dying men. It is also difficult to speak a lot of “s” sounds quickly in sequence (as popular tongue-twisters demonstrate). The language of these lines, then, echoes the pace of the slow, calm death they describe.