Download - Figlang
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Figurative Language: Images and Symbols
Dr Frances McCormack
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Figurative language
‘figures of speech’
Words or phrases that are not meant to be taken literally: ‘you are the apple of my eye’; ‘look before you leap’; ‘love is blind’; ‘there are plenty more fish in the sea’
Don’t be over-eager to ‘decode’ meanings in poems…
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‘Figures of speech enable the poet to say one thing in terms of something else. They bring together two things that are both similar and different--and it is in the relationship between them that the poet finds meaning. Figurative language thus enriches the semantic possibilities of a poem because the images created can communicate on two levels: they represent physical experience and simultaneously function as a thematic signpost’ (Thorne, 74-5)
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Metaphor
A comparison which speaks of one thing as though it were another.
Tenor: the object being described in the metaphor
Vehicle: the thing/idea in terms of which that object is being described
Ground: the similarity between the tenor and the vehicle
‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’
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Metaphor
Gk metaphero “to carry over”, “to transfer”
Transfer of word or idea from one context to another
Metaphors add a deeper layer of meaning to a text
But, there are dead metaphors: ‘no stone will be left unturned’. These metaphors have been so overused that we don’t pay any attention to the ground anymore.
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Conceit
‘When a metaphor is extended and explored so that it becomes the governing idea of a poem’ (Williams, 224).
Also known as an extended metaphor.
Especially popular among metaphysical poets.
Often witty.
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‘The Flea’, by John Donne
The Flea: consummation of a relationship
Three stanzas, each nine lines long. Stanzas rhyme aabbccddd
Alternating lines of tetrameter and pentameter
Seduction poem
Flea is an unlikely symbol for their love: conceit
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‘The Flea’, by John Donne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yrSGRWTOzQ&feature=related
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‘The Thought Fox’, by Ted Hughes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NO-XOCbacI
What strikes you?
Sound effects: alliteration in first line; assonance
First two lines in final stanza: striking
Fox as a symbol in literature and culture.
‘I imagine…’: unrealistic
‘creeping’ lines…
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‘The Twa Corbies’, Anonymous
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSL0QO54JpM&feature=related
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‘The Twa Corbies’, by Anonymous
As I was walking all alane,I heard twa corbies makin a mane;The tane unto the ither say,"Whar sall we gang and dine the-day?”
"In ahint yon auld fail dyke,I wot there lies a new slain knight;And nane do ken that he lies there,But his hawk, his hound an his lady fair.”
"His hound is tae the huntin gane,His hawk tae fetch the wild-fowl hame, His lady's tain anither mate,So we may mak oor dinner swate.”
"Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,And I'll pike oot his bonny blue een;Wi ae lock o his gowden hair We'll theek oor nest whan it grows bare.”
Mony a one for him makes mane,But nane sall ken whar he is gane;Oer his white banes, whan they are bare,The wind sall blaw for evermair."
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‘The Eagle’, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLn8d3sVc8A
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Simile
A comparison made between two distinct things, using ‘like’ or ‘as’
‘And like a thunderbolt, he falls’
Ambiguous: ‘falling’ suggests a sense of defeat; but ‘thunderbolt’ is destructive