Literary Devices

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Apostrophe
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Apostrophe:

a device used to speak to an inanimate object which has been personified.

moon.jpg

 
 
 
Winter garden,
the moon thinned to a thread,
    insects singing.
 
(Matsuo Basho, www.americanpoems.com)
 

winter-garden-bench-small.jpg

           The apostrophe in this poem is a winter garden. It seems to me that the poet is describing the night to the garden or the he is describing how the garden looks as part of the setting to the garden. What is meant by this is as when you ask someone how you look they describe it to you in the best way they can. This is what the poet is doing here and it seems to be quite affective.