Transcript Imagery and Figures of Speech

IMAGERY AND FIGURES OF
SPEECH
IMAGERY
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Imagery – Vivid language that addresses the
senses
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Can be used to convey emotions and moods
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd
Petals on a wet, black bough
IMAGERY
William Carlos Williams
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
METAPHORS
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A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike
things. – Types are:
Simile – an explicit comparison between two things
using comparison words such as “like, as, than,
appears, or seems”
 Metaphor – often uses a verb to assert the identity of
dissimilar things.

ex. 1 – Life is but a walking shadow (Macbeth)
 Ex. 2 – Her heart was iron in her breast (The Odyssey)
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METAPHORS
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth V.v.19-28
METAPHORS

Implied metaphors – a metaphor that hints or
alludes to the comparison, but does not make it
explicitly

“He brayed his refusal to leave”
Extended Metaphor – using a series of related
metaphors or similes to develop an overall
comparison
 Controlling Metaphor – a single comparison that
serves as a poem’s organizing principle
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METAPHORS
“Chess” by Rosario Castellanos
Because we were friends and sometimes loved each other,
perhaps to add one more tie
to the many that already bound us,
we decided to play games of the mind.
We set up a board between us:
equally divided into pieces, values,
and possible moves.
We learned the rules, we swore to respect them,
and the match began.
We've been sitting here for centuries, meditating
Ferociously
how to deal the one last blow that will finally
annihilate the other one forever.
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH

Pun – a play on words that relies on a word
having more than one meaning or sounding like
another word

“Pragmatist” by Edmund Conti
Apocalypse soon
Coming our way
Ground zero at noon
Halve a nice day.
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
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Synecdoche (examples complements of Wikipedia)

A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to
signify the whole.
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Describing a complete vehicle as "wheels"
Use of the names England (only one of the four constituent
nations) or Great Britain (the geographical name of the main
island) to mean the entire United Kingdom.
Use of Holland, a region of the Netherlands, to refer to the
entire country.
"truck" for any four-wheel drive vehicle (as well as long-haul
trailers, etc.)
"John Hancock" for the signature of any person
a genericized trademark, for example "Coke" for any variety of
cola or "Band-Aid" for any variety of adhesive bandage
"bug" for any kind of insect or arachnid, even if it is not a true
bug
"glasses" for spectacles
"plastic" for a credit card (asking a merchant) Do you take
plastic?
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
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Metonymy

Something closely associated with a subject is
substituted for it
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him
Julius Caesar, III,iii,280-281
METONYMY CONTINUED (COMPLEMENTS OF WIKIPEDIA)
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Sometimes, metaphor and metonymy can both be at work in the same figure of
speech, or one could interpret a phrase metaphorically or metonymically. For
example, the phrase "lend me your ear" could be analyzed in a number of ways.
One could imagine the following interpretations:
Analyze "ear" metonymically first — "ear" means "attention" (because we use
ears to pay attention to someone's speech). Now, when we hear the phrase
"lending ear (attention)", we stretch the base meaning of "lend" (to let someone
borrow an object) to include the "lending" of non-material things (attention),
but, beyond this slight extension of the verb, no metaphor is at work.
Imagine the whole phrase literally — imagine that the speaker literally
borrows the listener's ear as a physical object (and the person's head with it).
Then the speaker has temporary possession of the listener's ear, so the listener
has granted the speaker temporary control over what the listener hears. We
then interpret the phrase "lend me your ear" metaphorically to mean that the
speaker wants the listener to grant the speaker temporary control over what
the listener hears.
First, analyze the verb phrase "lend me your ear" metaphorically to mean "turn
your ear in my direction", since we know that literally lending a body part is
nonsensical. Then, analyze the motion of ears metonymically — we associate
"turning ears" with "paying attention", which is what the speaker wants the
listeners to do.
SYNECDOCHE AND METONYMY
The Hand That Signed the Paper
The Hand That Signed the Paper
By Dylan Thomas 1914–1953 Dylan Thomas
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The finger joints are cramped with chalk;
A goose’s quill has put an end to murder
That put an end to talk.
The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.
The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
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Personification – the attribution of human
characteristics to nonhuman things
The angry storm blew down my house
 The angry dog bit my hand
 The evil dog ate my spaghetti
 The Martian ate my spaghetti
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OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
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Apostrophe – an Address either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the
speaker or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend
“To A Wasp” Janice Townley Moore
You must have chortled
finding that tiny hole
in the kitchen screen. Right
into my cheese cake batter
you dived,
no chance to swim ashore,
no saving spoon,
the mixture whirling
your legs, wings, stinger,
churning you into such
delicious death.
Never mind the bright April day.
Did you not see
rising out of cumulus clouds
that fist aimed at both of us?
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
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Hyperbole (overstatement) – an exaggeration that adds
emphasis without intending to be literally true.
Understatement – a statement that says less than is
intended
To His Coy Mistress (excerpts)
Andrew Marvell
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on they forhead gaze,
Two hundred to adrore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
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Paradox – a statement that initially appears to
be self-contradictory, but that, on closer
inspection, turns out to make sense
The pen is mightier than the sword
 This statement is false
 “I can resist anything except temptation” – Oscar Wilde
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Oxymoron – a condensed form of paradox in
which two contradictory words are used together
Sweet sorrow, silent scream, sad joy, cold fire
 Jumbo shrimp
 Microsoft Works
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OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH