Why use figurative language? Not only the poets, but also the common people speak in a figurative way. When we say someone is a pig, we do not mean literally that person is a pig; just like when we use the expression "raining cats and dogs," we do not mean cats and dogs do fall from the sky like raindrops. The figurative language is "not merely a literary mannerism; it is based on the way our body and mind put us in touch with the universe" (Nims 22). It is not necessary for poetry to employ figurative language, but if it does (in other words, showing the reader more concrete images), it often could improve the readability of itself; and the reader could understand it more easily. Or the words would become pretty dull, illustrating nothing but the plain truth, like what Professor Raleigh comments on Wordsworth's poetry: "But the mere fact, which says everything, comes perilously near also to saying nothing" (Alden 137). Simile Simile refers to an analogy overtly stated, usually with the help of "like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems" (Arp 68). For examples, Hardy describes the lamp in the dark "began to outloom / Like dandelion-globes in the gloom" (Nims 27); T. S. Eliot's Prufrock sees the evening "spread out...like a patient etherized upon a table" (Ellman xliii); or how Sitwell puts in "An Old Woman": I, an old woman whose heart is like the Sun That has seen too much, looked on too many sorrows Yet is not weary of shining.... (Korg 61) Metaphor Metaphor is probably the most complicated figure of speech. It is derived from the Greek word for transfer (Nims 24), comparing two things directly like "A is B," or even ignore the verb and imply that A is B. It differs from Simile for its not using words like "like," and from Symbol for "[t]he two terms of a metaphor must resemble each other, even if only incidentally, but a symbol usually has no physical characteristics at all to justify its abstract meaning. Metaphor is a matter of identifying two things with each other. In symbolism, however, the symbolic object and its significance are thought of as clearly separate things, the one concrete, the other abstract. Further, symbolism tends to remain fixed; once a symbol has acquired a certain value, it tends to keep it. This characteristic makes symbols particularly useful in extended works of literature like novels or plays" (Korg 68). There are several possibilities for Metaphor: by usage could divide into "metaphor," "conceit," and "juxtaposition." The simpler metaphor concerns "A is B," like "he is a stallion"; and the more complicated one rids of the verb, like what Pound does in his "In the Station of Metro," or Robert Francis in his "The Hound." As for the other two entities of metaphor, the reader may find Donne's "The Flea" and Henry Reed's "Naming of Parts" quite typical. To sum up, Metaphor is actually a flexible way of showing analogies. Personification, Apostrophe Personification "consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept"; whereas Apostrophe "consists in addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if that person or thing were present and alive and could reply to what is being said." (Arp 72-73) The "Flower" and "Frost" in Dickinson's "Apparently with no surprise" belong to the former, and the star that begins Keats's "Bright Star" the latter. Synecdoche, Metonymy Synecdoche means "the use of the part for the whole," and metonymy means "the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant" (Arp 74). Here Thomas uses a synecdoche: The hand that signed the paper felled a city; Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath, Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country... (Dylan Thomas, "The Hand That Signed the Paper") And John Wain a metonymy full of cunning: The genuine justifies the genuine: A false coin dropped on a stone farmhouse floor Is heard as false: but every coiner knows This cannot happen on the board room carpet.... (Nims 35) Further Readings Delmore Schwartz, "The Heavy Bear"팊Robert Francis, "The Hound"팊John Keats, "Bright Star"팊Richard Wilbur, "Mind" Emily Dickinson, "I taste a liquor never brewed"팊Emily Dickinson, "Apparently with no surprise"팊Sylvia Plath, "Metaphors" Elizabeth Bishop, "Pink Dog"팊Wallace Stevens, "The Snow Man"팊Henry Reed, "Naming of Parts"팊Howard Moss, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day"팊N. Scott Momaday, "Simile" Robert Frost, "The Secret Sits"팊Robinson Jeffers, "Hands" Robinson Jeffers, "The Eye" Mathew Arnold, "To Marguerite, Continued"팊George Meredith, "A Dirge in the Woods"팊 -- 我打算逐步地寫一系列介紹性的文章 分享我對英詩的心得 我的文章都會收到英詩入門裡我的專區 有興趣的人可以去看看 亦請不吝指教 --

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