Question

Where knowledge is free figure of speech

Answer 1

Answer:

In the poem "Where the mind is without fear", where knowledge is free is not a figure of speech.

Explanation:

A figure of speech occurs when a word or group of words have a meaning beyond the literal. In the case of Tagor's poem, figures of speech include the following metaphors and personifications:

"the head is held high": This can literally mean that people are going around with their heads held high, but it stands as a metaphor for the idea of the Indian people regaining their pride and no longer being abject under British rule.

"Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls": Obviously, walls don't literally break the world into fragments. This metaphor means that people must transcend their petty differences and think beyond the needs of themselves and their immediate family.

"Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection": Abstract concepts like striving don't literally have arms, but the personified image of  stretching one's arms to reach a goal does seem to describe what striving feels like.

"Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way": Reason is not literally a clear stream, but the metaphor lets us visualize what it is like to think clearly. Just as a clear stream lets us see what is at the bottom of it, so does clear thinking get us to the bottom of a problem.  

"Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit": Habits don't literally die, especially not while we are still using them, so "dead" here stands as a metaphor for things we do repeatedly and unthinkingly. Habits are also not a desert, but a dreary desert of endless sands is an image of monotony and barrenness that suggests that unthinking habits get us nowhere and yield no harvest.

Finally, in "Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake": freedom is not literally heaven, and God is not literally the poet's biological father, so the poet in both cases is speaking metaphorically. Countries can't literally awaken: the poet is personifying his country.