Question

He set his face away
from the eclipse, his eyes seeking
their way to a place where the sun
does not see. In the distance,
the wheat waved and wilted under the wind
whose breath blew beyond the bare field.
The day found its bearings under
the chorus of cicadas chirping,
their tempo keeping time like a moving train.

He set his face away from all this
and beneath him, the rainwater from the storm drained
groaning into a gorge with a slight gurgle and sigh.
The fields fall fallow under the flood and freeze, and somehow he found her—
her hair dancing
like Medusa's split ends,
his feet cementing him
like a scarecrow wearing fearless birds.
8
What effect does the following line have on the poem?

their tempo keeping time like a moving train
A.
It creates a sense of travelling.
B.
It imitates the ticking sound of a train traveling on a railway.
C.
It compares cicadas to a train on a railway.
D.
It shows the difference between the noises of a cicada and a train.

Answer 1

A.

The simile links the cicadas’ steady beat to the onward motion of a train, supplying a rhythmic momentum and a sense of travel/movement in the scene.