33 pages 1 hour read

Pablo Neruda

A Dog Has Died

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1999

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Literary Device Questions

1. What literary device is exemplified by Neruda’s use of a repeated phrase (or phrases) within his poem? (short answer)

2. Which of these is an example of parallelism in the poem?

A) “I believe in a heaven I’ll never enter. / Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom”

B) “Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth, / of having lost a companion”

C) “No, my dog used to gaze at me, / paying me the attention I need”

D) “with his golden tail held high, / face to face with the ocean's spray.”

3. Which of these is an example of repetition?

A)  “. . . of their shameless spirit”

B)  “Joyful, joyful, joyful”

C) “There are no goodbyes for my dog who has died”

D) “. . . all his sweet and shaggy life”

4. What does the sea symbolize in the poem?

A) boundless freedom and in-the-moment joy

B) danger and the possibility of death

C) fear of a vast, unknown expanse

D) the energetic possibility of life still to come