poetry - What is the meaning of Both wry with the laboured ease of . . . To be honest, the meaning of wry is confusing to me And what does the word "Both" refer to? What is the meaning of 'easing into a pensive'? What do the words "Of this circumstance" refer to? What is the meaning of "Its silence silences"?
poetry - What figure of speech is transient feet in A Photograph by . . . At the level of the narrative, "transient feet" is an example of a pars pro toto, i e a part (the feet) standing for the whole (the bodies or the persons, one of whom has died) A pars pro toto is one specific type of synecdoche At the level of the slice of life seen on the photograph, the feet stand for the footprints they leave on the beach; it is these footprints that are transient
meaning - Explanation of a pargraph from Five Children and It . . . My reading of it is that it is a wry jab at the 'sort of people who make laws about lighting bicycle lamps' The narrator judges them to be bossy sort of people who like their word to be law Hence if the sun did not set at its appointed time they would demand that the sun provide them with an adequate explanation of his aberrant behaviour The rules surrounding lighting bicycle lamps at that