THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY: IMAGERY- DESCRIPTIVE AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

When 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
as "like," "as," or "than," or a verb such as "seems." The following are some examples:

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
and a specific meaning. Generally, it means any analogy ( an analog)- is a partial similarity between
two things upon which a comparison may be based) .Specifically, metaphor means a particular kind of
analogy and is contrasted with the simile. A simile is a comparison of two things that are essentially
different, and it is signalled by the use of like or as, for example "her tears were like a jailing rain ". A
metaphor also compares things that are essentially unlike, but it eliminates the comparative words and
thus equates the compared items.

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
which it is closely related. For example, if a letter is said to be in Milton's own hand, it means that the
letter is in Milton's own handwriting. As another example, Sidney wrote in his sonnet "With How Sad
Steps, O Moon" "What, may be that even in heav'nly place/That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?"
''That busy archer" is a reference to Cupid, the god of love frequently depicted as a cherubic little boy
with a quiver full of arrows. Here he is at his usual occupation—shooting arrows into the hearts of
-unsuspecting men and women. Thus an archer, by relating to the god of love, describes love without
specifically using the word.

4.Synecdoche. Synecdoche substitutes a part of something for the whole, or the whole is used in
place of one of the parts. "'Ten sails" would thus stand for ten ships.

5. Transferred Epithet. Transferred epithet is a word or phrase shifted from the noun it would
usually describe to one which has no logical connection with it, as in Gray's "drowsy tinklings," where
"drowsy" literally describes the sheep who wear the bells, but here is figuratively applied to the bells. In current usage, the distinction between metonymy, synecdoche, and transferred epithet is so slight that
the term metonymy is often used to cover them all. .

6. Personification.Personification is the attribution of human characteristics and/or feelings to
nonhuman organisms, inanimate objects, or abstract ideas. "Death, Be Not Proud' by John Donne
addressed Death as if it were a person capable of hearing as well as possessing human emotions, such as
pride. Tennyson's "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white" and Shakespeare's reference to "Time's
cruel hand" are both examples of this process at work.

7. Pathetic fallacy.This is a specific kind of personification in which inanimate objects are given
human emotions. John Ruskin originated the term in Modern Painters (1856). Ruskin uses the example
of "the cruel crawling foam" of the ocean to discuss the pathetic fallacy: The ocean is not cruel, happy
to inflict pain on others, as a person may be, although it may well seem cruel to those who have
suffered because of it. Ruskin obviously disapproved of such misstatement, and allowed it only in verse
where the poet was so moved by passion that he could not be expected to speak with greater accuracy.
But in all trulygreat poetry, Ruskin held, the speaker is able to contain his excess emotion to express
himself accurately. The term is used today, however, without this negative implication.

8. Apostrophe. Apostrophe is also closely related to personification. Here, a thing is addressed
directly, as though it were a person listening to the conversation. For example we have Wordsworth's
"Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour," although Milton has obviously passed on, Apostrophe
and personification go hand-in-hand in Donne's "Busy old fool, unruly Sun" and Wyatt's "My lute,
awake" Milton's apostrophe has only a hint of the laurels as listening things in "Yet once more, O ye
laurels,"

9. Invocation.Invocation isan address to a god or muse whose aid is sought. This is commonly
found at the beginning of an epic. For example, Milton's "Sing,Heavenly Muse" at the opening of his
Paradise Lost.

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
than it indirectly suggests, as in Jonathan Swift's "Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly
believe how much it altered her person for the worst." In the same way, Auden's ironic poem "The
Unknown Citizen" has a great many examples of understatement that combine to show how numbers
cannot evaluate the ultimate happiness of a person's life.

12. Litotes. Litotes is a special form of understatement. It affirms something by negating its opposite.
For example, "He's no fool" means that he is very shrewd.

13. Synesthesia. This takes one of the five senses and creates a picture or image of sensation as
perceived by another. For example, "the golden cry of the trumpet" combines "golden", a visual
perception of color, with "cry," hearing. In the same manner, Emily Dickinson speaks of a fly's "blue,
uncertain stumbling buzz."

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
examples of this process. The two words that are brought together to form a description of this nature
ought to cancel each other out by the nature of their contradictions; instead, they increase the sense of
each word. Thus "sweet pain" aptly describes certain experiences of love.

15. Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia refers to the repetition of a sound intended to echo what it is
describing. The famous last lines of Tennyson's "Come Down, O Maid," contain an example. "The
moan of doves in immemorial elms/And murmuring of innumerable bees" suggests the sounds of birds
and bees among old trees.

16. Symbolism. Symbolism occurs when an image stands for something other than what was
expected. The ocean, for example, may be said to symbolize "eternity," and the phrase "river to the sea"
could stand for "life flowing into afterlife." In most instances the symbol does not directly reveal what it
stands for; the meaning must be discovered through a close reading of the poem and an understanding
of conventional literary and cultural symbols. For example, we realize that the "stars and stripes" stands
for the American flag. We know this because we are told it is so, for the flag itself in no way looks like
the United States. Without cultural agreement, many of the symbols we commonly accept would be
meaningless.

17. Irony. Irony states things in one tone of voice when in fact the opposite meaning is intended.
Auden's "Unknown Citizen," for example, ends ironically by making a statement that the reader knows
to be false. As a matter of fact, the entire poem is ironic in that it condemns the State by using the
State's own terms of praise: "Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd;/Had anything been
wrong, we should certainly have heard."

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
not mean that the word or term is unclear; rather, it means that the perceptive reader can see more than
one possible interpretation at the same time. Puns, for example, offer ambiguity, as these lines from
Wyatt's "They Flee From Me" show: "But since that I so kindely [sic] am served/ I fain would know
what she hath deserved. "The word "kindely" means both " served by a group" and "courteously."

21. Allegory. Allegory occurs when one idea or object is represented in the shape of another. In
medieval morality plays and in some poems, abstract ideas such as virtues and vices appear as people.
In this way the reader can understand a moral or a lesson more easily. In Emily Dickinson's poem
"Because I Could Not Stop For Death" death appears as the allegorical figure of a coachman, kindly
stopping to pick her up on the road to eternity.

(From: From: Laurie Rozakis. AP English Literature and Composition, p. 181-186)

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1550