You are here
A poetic device is a trick or tool the poet uses to make her words more powerful or beautiful. Below is each device used in this poem, explained in simple words.
Extended Metaphor
What it means:
An extended metaphor is one comparison that runs through the
whole poem
, not just one line.
Common example:
A poem that keeps calling life a journey — with roads, turns and stops in every stanza — uses an extended metaphor.
In the poem:
The whole poem compares a
garden to a painting
— the palette, the brushstrokes, the canvas and the paintings appear from the first line to the last.
▼
Metaphor
What it means:
A metaphor is a direct comparison that calls one thing another thing, without using the words “like” or “as”.
Common example:
When we say “Time is money”, we do not mean time is really money — we compare them to show that time is very precious.
In the poem:
The
earth
is called a
palette
, the
seeds
are called
brushstrokes
, and each
plot
is called a
canvas
.
▼
Alliteration
What it means:
Alliteration is the repeating of the same
sound
at the start of words that are close together.
Common example:
In “She sells seashells on the seashore”, the ‘s’ sound repeats again and again.
In the poem:
In “
Blossoms bloom
” (Line 5), the
‘b’ sound
repeats — the line itself seems to burst open like a flower.
▼
Personification
What it means:
Personification means giving human qualities — like feelings or actions — to a thing, an animal or an idea that is not really human.
Common example:
When we say “The wind whispered through the trees”, we give the wind the human power to whisper, though wind cannot really speak.
In the poem:
The blossoms are shown
“dancing”
in the morning light, and the gardeners’ dreams
“seep”
into the earth as if they were alive.
▼
Visual Imagery
What it means:
Visual imagery is the use of words that paint a clear
picture
in our mind while reading.
Common example:
The line “The juicy orange dripped down my fingers” makes us see the bright fruit and the dripping juice.
In the poem:
“
Shades of green, red, and blue
” and “
a painted sight
” fill our mind with the bright colours of the garden.
▼
Rhyme Scheme (AABB)
What it means:
A rhyme scheme is the fixed pattern of rhyming sounds at the ends of lines.
AABB
means the lines rhyme in pairs, called couplets.
Common example:
In “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, / How I wonder what you are”,
star
and
are
rhyme as a pair.
In the poem:
Every stanza rhymes in pairs —
deep/seep, true/hue, sight/light, blue/new, wide/coincide, till/still
— giving the poem a steady, song-like beat.
▼
Allegory
What it means:
An allegory is a poem or story with two levels — a simple story on the surface, and a
deeper hidden meaning
under it.
Common example:
The story of the slow tortoise beating the fast hare is really a lesson about steady hard work.
In the poem:
On the surface the poem is about
gardening
; underneath, it is about
life’s journey and growth
, and the many colours stand for the
beauty of diversity
in our world.
▼
Word-play
What it means:
Word-play is using a word that carries
two meanings at the same time
, so the line can be read in two ways.
Common example:
The line “Seven days without water makes one weak” plays on
weak
and
week
, which sound the same.
In the poem:
In “
Gardens become paintings still
” (Line 12),
still
means both
unmoving
(calm like a finished painting) and
even now
(gardens keep on becoming art).
