Question

who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?
i cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.
open your doors and look abroad.
from your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before.
in the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across an hundred years.
-\85,\
rabindranath tagore

in what way is apostrophe used in this poem?

the speaker uses figurative language to draw a picture in the readers mind.
the speaker describes the fragrant memories of the vanished flowers.
the speaker speaks to a reader one hundred years in the future.

Explanation:

Define the literary device of apostrophe

An apostrophe is a rhetorical figure of speech in which the speaker addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or an inanimate object as if they were present and capable of understanding.

Analyze the poem's opening lines

The poem begins with the direct address: "Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?" Here, the speaker is directly speaking to a future reader who is not physically present.

Connect the analysis to the concept of Audience and Purpose

Using the Audience and Purpose concept, we evaluate how the speaker's direct address establishes a connection with a hypothetical future audience. By speaking directly to a reader "an hundred years hence," the speaker employs apostrophe to bridge the gap of time.

Evaluate the given multiple-choice options

• Option 1: "The speaker uses figurative language to draw a picture..." describes imagery, not apostrophe.
• Option 2: "The speaker describes the fragrant memories..." describes thematic content and imagery.
• Option 3: "The speaker speaks to a reader one hundred years in the future." directly matches the definition of apostrophe by addressing an absent entity (the future reader).

Answer:

• The speaker uses figurative language to draw a picture in the reader's mind.
• The speaker describes the fragrant memories of the vanished flowers.
• The speaker speaks to a reader one hundred years in the future. (Correct answer)