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What figure of speech is “lurking frost in the earth beneath" in Robert Frost's poem "Two Tramps in Mud Time"?

This line employs several different literary techniques.  On the surface it is personification, since the frost is given the human-like quality of "lurking," suggesting that it is waiting for a chance to ambush someone.  It hides beneath the earth, hoping for the opportunity to cause some havoc, hardening the mud to lumpy ruts or to "show on the water its crystal teeth." When it does come out of hiding, it turns the firm ground to a muddy mess.


Frost is also using a rhetorical device here called hyperbation, which occurs when words appear in an unexpected pattern.  Typically, we place prepositions before their objects, so we would expect the line to read, "beneath the earth." Instead Frost creatively pens it "in the earth beneath," flipping the word order, which emphasizes this unique image and causes us to pause, considering and envisioning the earth on this April day.

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