Read the extract from 'The hunting of Shumba' by Kingsley Fairbridge and
answer the questions. This poem describes the way Shumba, a lion, hunts his prey.
A grass-blade breaking!
Swift in awful calm,
The mighty limbs at length along the ground;
Steel muscles tightening -
A sense of harm,
Intangible... no shadow of a sound...
But savage eyes unveil'd,
Intense as death;
Purs'd lips and lower'd ears and bated breath, Dread vigour hail'd
From every nerve and tissue - crouching there
Blent with grass,- incarnate, awful fear !
A leap a scream
a thud; And it is done.
Silence awhile, and the hot smell of blood.
Silence, then slowly, with the sinking sun, The rend of flesh....The crickets wake and sing,
The frogs take up their song, the night-jars wing
Weird in the azure dusk. As had been will'd,
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C IGHLI
Identify the figures of speech in the poem