2026Q1(xii)Haunted Houses

MCQEasy1 mark

Choose the correct answers to the questions from the given options. (Do not copy the questions, write ONLY the correct answers.)

Which of the given options contains the figure of speech that appears in the following lines from Longfellow's poem, 'Haunted Houses'? 'The spirit-world around this world of sense Floats like an atmosphere, …'

Topic: Figures of speech

Previous-year question practice database

Try it

Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.

Choose an answer

'Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.''When Frost was spectre-gray''An hundred years should go to praise / Thine eyes''She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;'

Answer

Exam answer

(d) 'She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;'.

Explanation

Two steps again. The given lines use "like" to compare the spirit world to an atmosphere — a simile. Then test the options for the same device: only (d) uses "like" to make a comparison. Option (a) is a paradox, (b) a metaphor, (c) hyperbole. Learn to name all four, since this paper regularly offers them as distractors.

In words

'She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;'.

Example

'She sways like a flower in the wind of our song' — both are similes.

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