Question

What does the phrase, “he ran as still as Water” mean?

Answer 1

Hint: The context of the above question is given in the poem ’Mystery of the talking fan’ which is about a ceiling fan and its sound. It is written by Maude Rubin. Maude Rubin was a poetess from Colorado. She bagged 42 state and national awards for her literary works.

Complete answer:
The phrase ‘still water’ implies that there is an absence of flow in the water; its surface is smooth; without current. While ‘he’, in the question, refers to the ceiling fan in the room of the poetess. It has been personified in the poem and is assumed to possess human traits of speaking.

The phrase “he ran as still as water” means that the fan moved smoothly without making any noise. Like, still water is silent and calm, similarly, the fan was smooth like still water. Someone oiled its motor which resulted in its smooth functioning. Otherwise, the fan was making an incomprehensible noise which as per the poetess, was likened to human speech. But before she could comprehend the unintelligible speech and unravel its mystery, someone oiled the motor and stopped its noise.

Note: ‘As still as Water’ is a simile. The simile is a figure of speech that is used to compare two different things and correlates the characteristics common to both things. Similes are written with ‘like’ or ‘as..as..’ and thus can be easily identified in a sentence.

Also, the fan is personified and is assumed to possess human traits. It does the ‘electric chatter’ to demand attention(probably oiling). Personification is the figure of speech that is used to rationalize human traits in non-human things.