Figures of Speech, or Metaphorical Language: A Source of Depth and

Range in Poetry

• Figures of speech, metaphorical language, figurative language, figurative devise, and rhetorical figures are terms describing organized patterns of comparison that deepen, broaden, extend, illuminate, and emphasis meaning.

• Gives us a fresh and original way of thinking, feeling, and understanding.

Metaphor

• You are the sunshine of my life• All the world’s a stage

Similie

• Ogres are like onions

• Paradox-contradictory and truthful• Anaphora-repetition of the same word or phrase• Personification• Synecdoche- all hands aboard• Metonymy-Hollywood• Paronomasia-wordplay stemming from the fact that

words with different meanings have similar sounds but different meanings.

• Synesthesia-personification of emotions• Overstatement• Understatement (Litote)

Metaphorical Language Terms

• Sic Vita (Such is Life)– Henry King

• Like to the falling of a star, Or as the flights of eagles are, Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue, Or silver drops of morning dew, Or like a wind that chafes the flood, Or bubbles which on water stood: Even such is man, whose borrowed light Is straight called in, and paid to night. The wind blows out, the bubble dies; The spring entombed in autumn lies; The dew dries up, the star is shot; The flight is past, and man forgot.

• 1. how many similes are in the poem? What do all these similis have in common?

• 2. What point does this poem make about humanity? In what ways do the similis in the poem help explore these ideas and bring them to life?

• “Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath• I’m a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,A melon strolling on two tendrils.O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

• 1. What evidence can you find in the poem that the speaker is a woman?

• 2. The speaker calls herself a riddle in nine syllables. What is the answer to the riddle? Why nine syllables? In what sense is the poem also a riddle? How are the answers to both riddles related?

• 3. Which of the metaphors do you find amusing, s hocking, demeaning? What do these suggest about the speaker’s attitude toward herself?

• 4. What two meanings are suggested by the stage metaphor? Why is the train metaphor appropriate to the speaker’s condition and the results of that condition?

• Looking at Each Other• By Muriel Rukeyser• • Yes, we were looking at each other

Yes, we knew each other very wellYes, we had made love with each other many timesYes, we had heard music togetherYes, we had gone to the sea togetherYes, we had cooked and eaten togetherYes, we had laughed often day and nightYes, we fought violence and knew violenceYes, we hated the inner and outer oppressionYes, that day we were looking at each otherYes, we saw the sunlight pouring downYes, the corner of the table was between usYes, our eyes saw each other’s eyesYes, our mouths saw each other’s mouthsYes, our breasts saw each other’s breastsYes, our bodies entire saw each otherYes, it was beginning in eachYes, it threw waves across our livesYes, the pulses were becoming very strongYes, the beating became very delicateYes, the calling the arousalYes, the arriving the comingYes, there it was for both entireYes, we were looking at each other

• 1. What is the dramatic situation of the poem? What sort of listener is the speaker addressing?

• Describe the rhetorical device used here? How many different words are being repeated?

• 3. What is the effect of the repetitions? What is their relationship to the emotions and experiences that the speaker is describing?