Once by the Pacific

Generally speaking, figurative language refers to language that is not literal. Poets use figurative language to compare like (or unlike) things: This device encourages the reader to see something in terms of something else.

Personification is one example of figurative language in “Once by the Pacific.” A poet personifies an object, animal, or abstraction by ascribing it human characteristics. In Line 2, for example, the waves “looked over others coming in” —they can “see” as a human would. In the following line, they even have the capacity to think (“And thought of doing something to the shore,” Line 3). This gives the clouds human agency and capacity for malevolence. The clouds are also personified as possessing hair and eyes (Line 6); the “gleam” of their eyes suggests some evil intelligence. Finally, in Line 8, the speaker personifies the shore, describing it as “lucky.”

Frost also uses synesthesia, another type of figurative language. Synesthesia refers to the experience of one sensory event in terms of another; for example, “seeing” a musical note, or “hearing” a certain color. In “Once by the Pacific,” “misty din” is a synesthetic image. The noise made by waves (and wind, presumably) should be auditory, but Frost presents the image in visual terms.