The GATE Grind

GATE 2023 XH2 (English) – Question 57

Literary Forms, Genres, and Modes of Expression · Aesthetic and Rhetorical Strategies: Narrative and poetic techniques, and figures of speech · 2 marks · Multiple select

Read the following poem and identify the appropriate options:

And search
for certain thin –
stemmed, bubble-eyed water bugs.
See them perch
on dry capillary legs
weightless
on the ripple skin
of a stream.
No, not only prophets
walk on water. This bug sits
on a landslide of lights
and drowns eye –
deep
into its tiny strip
of sky.

  1. It uses free verse form.
  2. It employs imagery.
  3. It uses the iambic pentameter.
  4. It juxtaposes the non-human with the human.

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (A) It uses free verse form.; (B) It employs imagery.; (D) It juxtaposes the non-human with the human.

Explanation

The lines have no regular metre or rhyme (free verse), they are full of visual images of the water bug, and the poem sets the bug beside the prophets who “walk on water”. It does not use iambic pentameter.