Question

Read the following lines from the poem and answer the question given below:
“Have you noticed how some people
May seem plain as plain can be?”
Identify the figure of speech employed here.

Answer 1

Hint: The given sentence does not contain the words ‘like’ and ‘as’ and simply describes the noun by repeating some words. This will help you narrow down the options.

Complete answer: A figure of speech is a word/phrase that has a
completely separate meaning from its literal definition. Figures of speech are often
fantastical and dreamy, so, they are mostly used in artistic avenues, i.e. in movies,
literature, and poetry. Let’s look at an example: “The road to success is usually a difficult and dangerous road to take” refers to the way to success being a difficult and dangerous road. The meaning that it lends itself is that success is difficult to attain. Here, a direct comparison is being made between ‘road to success’ and ‘difficult and dangerous road’. The comparison is direct because there is no insinuation, it is presented as a fact. So, this is an example of a metaphor.
In the given sentences, the lines seem to be asking a question. The first line of the stanza asks if the reader has noticed how some people are. This means that the second line is going to describe the noun ‘people’. The second line goes on to say ‘may seem plain as plain can be’. This means that the poet thinks that most people are extremely plain. He conveys this by purposely repeating the word ‘plain’. This means that the word ‘plain’ has been repeated to emphasise the meaning of these lines.

There is one figure of speech that fits into this category and that is ‘repetition’. It is a frequently used literary device which makes use of the repetition of words or phrases to bring them to your attention. This helps to make literary texts more well-rounded.
So, the answer we are looking for is the figure of speech ‘repetition’.

Note: Try to look for things that are specific to one particular figure of speech. Then, try to understand what the sentence means. This will lead you to the correct answer.