visual imagery and figures of speech in poetry Flashcards
1
Q
simile and analogy
A
simile: explicit comparisons
- usually involves ‘like’ or ‘as’
- usually made passingly
- usually do not elaborate
- sometimes elaborate into more elaborate comparisons
- occasionally even govern a poem
→ analogies
2
Q
metaphor
A
- when a comparison is implicit (describing something
as if it were something else) - through metaphors the reader can
understand/appreciate/to some extent share the
increasing sense of urgency- emotional sense of the poem depends largely on
the way each metaphor is developed and by the
way each metaphor leads
- emotional sense of the poem depends largely on
3
Q
personification
A
treating as abstraction (f.e. death/justice/beauty) as if it were a person
4
Q
metonymy and synecdoche
A
- metonymy: relies on the fact that one thing is
associated with another → refers to a thing by naming
something else associated with it - synecdoche: type of metonymy; referring to a thing by
naming only a part of it
5
Q
allusion
A
- brief reference to a fictitious or actual
person/place/thing + (usually) to the stories or myth
surrounding it - requires reader to learn something new
6
Q
poems and visual imagery
A
poems depend on concrete and specific words that create images in our minds → poems help us see things afresh or feel them suggestively through our other physical senses
7
Q
poems and figures of speech
A
- poets use linguistic strategies to re-create for the
reader they have already ‘seen’ → depend on readers
having had a rich variety of visual experiences- try to draw on those experiences by using common,
evocative words and then refining the process
through more elaborate verbal devices
- try to draw on those experiences by using common,
8
Q
visual qualities of poetry result partly from the two aspects of poetic language
A
- precision of individual words
- ambiguity/richness/reach of suggestion of words
- also: sophisticated rhetorical and literary devices
