The intended effect of the metaphor of a "phantom ship" in stanza three is best captured by option d. to show that the British ship is dangerous. The term "phantom" implies something ghostly or menacing, which suggests danger, especially in the context of Paul Revere's midnight ride and the tensions between the colonists and the British forces. The description evokes a sense of foreboding as the ship looms in the night.
Paul Reverse's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five: Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and years.
He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal-light, One, if by land, and two, if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middles3x village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm."
Then he said, Good-night! and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Just as the swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison-bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Use the first three stanzas of the poem "Paul Reverse's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to answer the question.
What is the intended effect of the metaphor of a "phantom ship" in stanza three?
a. to show how the British ship reflects the water
b. to indicate that the moon is not bright over the bay
c. to suggest that the ship appeared suddenly
d. to show that the British ship is dangerous
1 answer