Poetry Hacks

Rhetorical Question

What is it? A question asked to create an effect, rather than for an answer.

What effect does it usually have? Rhetorical questions are often used as a method of persuasion; the implication is that anyone in their right mind needs no answer to the question. What else should I look out for? Rhetorical questions can create a sense of entreaty, or a pleading tone, especially when they are used one after the other (a technique called quaesitio ). They are also used to present a topic to be further explored in the text, such as in the famous opening line, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'

An exa mple of how it works … ‘The Schoolboy’ by William Blake:

How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?

Here the writer uses a rhetorical question to convey the immorality of confining children to 'cruel' and 'dreary' schools; no bird can sing for long in a cage, it is argued, just as no child can keep their 'youthful spring' in that environment.

Another example … ‘Ode to the West Wind’ by P. B. Shelley:

O Wind If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

The poet closes this poem expressing hope that the oppressions of the present – symbolised by winter – will eventually pass. The rhetorical question makes the speaker's longing for a brighter future seem both more heartfelt and tentative.

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