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THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY: IMAGERY- DESCRIPTIVE AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGEWhen applied to poetry, the term imagery has two meanings. 1) First, imagery represents the descriptive passages of a poem. In this meaning, imagery is language that makes an object or experience so real that we can imagine it with our senses; sight, hearing, touch, taste. Sensory images are created by the poet's careful selection of words to help the reader feel, see, smell, hear or taste things. The selection of detail and the vividness imparted to images help create tone, meaning, and characterization. 2) Critics today use imagery in a second sense. They use it to mean figurative language, apart from descriptive language mentioned in 1). Figurative language is the conscious departure from normal and conventional ways of saying things. Robert Frost, the twentieth-century American poet, once said, "Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another." Of course, this is an exaggeration, but it does underline the importance of figurative language—saying one thing in terms of another. Words have a literal meaning that can be looked up in any dictionary, but they can also be employed so that something other than that literal dictionary meaning is intended. What is impossible or difficult to convey to a reader through the literal use of language {literal means exact or not exaggerated ) may be highly possible through the use of figures of speech, also called tropes. Tropes (literally, "turns ") extend the meaning of words beyond their literal meaning. Figures of speech/tropes make language significant, moving, and fascinating. "My love is a rose" is, when taken at face value, ridiculous, for few love a plant with a prickly, thorny stem. But "rose" suggests many other possible interpretations—delicate beauty, soft, rare, costly, etc.—and so it can be implied in a figurative sense to mean "love" or "loved one." If a reader comes across the phrase "Brutus growled," he/she is forced, if the poem has indicated that Brutus is a human, to accept "growled" in a non-literal manner. We understand that it is likely that the poet is suggesting that Brutus spoke like an animal, perhaps a lion or a bear, and indicates Brutus' irritation or unrest. The author calls forth the suggestion of wild animals to describe Brutus most vividly and accurately. It is far more effective than saying "Brutus spoke like an animal" or "Brutus acted like an animal." By using a figure of speech, the author calls the reader's imagination into play.
Here is a selection of figures of speech that you can come across while reading poetry. 1. Simile. A simile is a comparison between unlike objects introduced by a connective word such My heart is like a singing bird (C. Rossetti) 2. Metaphor. A metaphor is a comparison without the "like" or "ay." Metaphor has both a general Once established, this relationship between unlike objects alters our perception of both. In the most basic metaphor, such as "My love is a rose," "rose" and "love" are equated. They are not alike, but they interact with one another, so the abstract word, "love" becomes concrete. Now it is not a vague internal emotion but an object that could be picked and caressed. We can make the comparison even more specific by describing the rose in more detail—color, variety, and so forth. The subject of the comparison—in this case, love— is called the tenor, and the figure that completes the metaphor—the rose—the vehicle. These terms were coined by critic I.A. Richards. Implicit or Submerged Metaphor.If we do not have both terms of the metaphor present ("My winged heart" instead of "My heart is a bird"), we have what is called a submerged metaphor. Mixed Metaphor. A mixed metaphor combines two metaphors, often with absurd results. For example, "Let's kon out the bottlenecks" would be silly, for it is obvious that it is an impossibility. Dead Metaphor. A metaphor that has lost its figurative value through overuse is called a dead metaphor. "Foot of a hill" or "eye of a needle" are examples. Extended Metaphor. An extended metaphor results when a metaphor becomes elaborate or complex. It has length and the ideas are more fully illustrated. 3. Metonymy. Metonymy is the-substitution of one item for another item that it suggests or to 4.Synecdoche. Synecdoche substitutes a part of something for the whole, or the whole is used in 5. Transferred Epithet. Transferred epithet is a word or phrase shifted from the noun it would 6. Personification.Personification is the attribution of human characteristics and/or feelings to 7. Pathetic fallacy.This is a specific kind of personification in which inanimate objects are given 8. Apostrophe. Apostrophe is also closely related to personification. Here, a thing is addressed 9. Invocation.Invocation isan address to a god or muse whose aid is sought. This is commonly 10. Hyperbole or Overstatement. This is exaggeration for a specific literary effect. 11. Understatement. Understatement is the opposite of exaggeration, a statement that states less 12. Litotes. Litotes is a special form of understatement. It affirms something by negating its opposite. 13. Synesthesia. This takes one of the five senses and creates a picture or image of sensation as 14. Oxymoron. Oxymoron is the combination of contradictory or incongruous terms. "Living death," "mute cry," and Milton's description of hell as "no light, but rather darkness visible" are all 15. Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia refers to the repetition of a sound intended to echo what it is 16. Symbolism. Symbolism occurs when an image stands for something other than what was 17. Irony. Irony states things in one tone of voice when in fact the opposite meaning is intended. Socratic Irony. This form of irony is named for Socrates, who usually pretended to be ignorant when he was in fact cautious or tentative. The person who states "/ 'do not understand; please explain this to me ..." is a Socratic ironist, and his words are ironic, for he clearly does understand. Verbal Irony. This form of irony involves a contrast between what is stated and what is more or less wryly suggested. The statement is somehow negated by its suggestions. Thus, Pope attacks the proud man by ironically encouraging his pride: Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense, Weigh thy opinion against Providence ... Snatch from His hand the balance of the rod, Re-judge his justice, be the God of God. What is stated ironically need not always be the direct reverse of what is suggested; irony may, for instance, state less than what is suggested, as in the following understatement: "Men have died from time to lime." Sarcasm. Sarcasm is crude and heavy-handed verbal irony. Dramatic Irony, Sophoclean Irony, Tragic Irony. Here the irony refers to conditions or affairs which are the tragic reverse of what the participants have expected. Thus, it is ironic that when Eve eats the forbidden fruit she is faced with great sorrow, for she had expected great joy and happiness. Macbeth expected great happiness to follow his killing of King Duncan; instead, he finds that he forfeits all that makes life worth living by his deed. Sophocles' King Oedipus accuses the blind prophet of corruption, but by the end of the play he learns, as we had realized all along, that he is himself corrupt, that he has been blind to what is real, and that the prophet's visions were indeed correct. As in verbal irony, dramatic irony is marked by contrast, but here it is not between what the speaker says and means, but between what he says and means and the real state of affairs. Irony of Fate or Cosmic Irony. This term describes the view that God, Fate, or some supernatural being is amused to manipulate human beings as a puppeteer would manipulate puppets. It is an irony of fate that the prisoner receives his pardon a moment too late. Romantic Irony. Romantic irony is most commonly found in German literature and shows the creator detaching himself from his creation to treat it playfully or objectively. 18.Contrast.Contrast shows the difference between two objects. In this sense it is the opposite of comparison, which shows similarities. In the following example by William Shakespeare, we see his mistress contrasted to various accepted symbols of adoration: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Cora! is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head, 19.Connotation and Denotation.Connotation is the generally accepted meaning(s) of a word, in contrast to the denotation, which is the dictionary meaning. Connotation adds additional richness to a word's, and by extension a poem's, meaning. In the line, "She was the sickle; I, poor /, the rake" the word "rake" has a clear denotation—a gardening too! designed to pick up clippings from a lawn or a garden that a sickle might have cut down. In the context of the entire poem, though, the word "rake" has the connotative meaning of a debauched man. The two meanings work together to give the poem greater depth and further the author's theme. 20. Ambiguity. Ambiguityallows multiple meanings to coexist in a word or a metaphor. It does 21. Allegory. Allegory occurs when one idea or object is represented in the shape of another. In (From: From: Laurie Rozakis. AP English Literature and Composition, p. 181-186)
Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1545
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