Read the following extract from Robert Frost's poem, 'A Considerable Speck' and answer the questions that follow: This was no dust speck by my breathing blown, But unmistakably a living mite With inclinations it could call its own.
What did the narrator first imagine the ‘speck’ to be? What does his use of the words ‘speck’ and ‘mite’ tell us about it?
Topic: First impression of the speck
Answer
He first took it for a speck of dust that had settled on the page, blown there by his own breathing as he wrote.
Both words insist on its extreme smallness — a "speck" is the least visible particle, and a "mite" is among the tiniest of creatures. The shift from one word to the other also marks the poem’s turn: "speck" is lifeless matter, while "mite" is a living being, so the change of word is the moment he realises he is looking at life.
The second part rewards attention to diction. Do not just say "they show it was small" — note that Frost moves deliberately from a dead noun to a living one, and that the title itself, "A Considerable Speck", is a paradox joining insignificance with importance. That is the kind of observation that earns the top mark.