Figurative Language III: Paradox, Overstatement & Understatement, Irony, Sarcasm & Satire, Allusion

Paradox

A paradox is a contradiction. The paradox may be either a situation (situational paradox) or a statement (verbal paradox / paradoxical statement). “In a paradoxical statement the contradiction usually stems from one of the words being used figuratively” (Sound & Sense, p. 113).

An example of a paradox in poetry can be found in Emily Dickinson’s poem “Much Madness is divinest Sense” (Sound & Sense, p. 114). How can “madness” be “sense”? In the poem the speaker also claims that “Much Sense” is “Madness”; this is also a contradiction.

“The value of paradox is its shock value. Its seeming impossibility startles the reader into attention and, by the fact of its apparent absurdity, underscores the truth of what is being said” (Sound & Sense, p. 113).

Overstatement & Understatement

If you say “I’m so tired I could die!” you are exaggerating. In poetry such exaggeration is called overstatement, or hyperbole. The opposite of overstatement is understatement, which is saying less than what you really mean. For instance, if your mother prepared a feast for her guests but says “It is only a little food,” this would be called understatement.

Irony, Sarcasm, and Satire

Irony (specifically verbal irony) is saying the opposite of what one means. If I visit someone in hospital who is seriously ill and I tell him “You look healthy,” then this is a form of verbal irony. Sometimes a situation can be ironic. “[I]rony of situation, occurs when a discrepancy exists between the actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate or between what one anticipates and what actually comes to pass. If a man and his second wife, on the first night of their honeymoon, are accidentally seated at the theatre next to the man’s first wife, we should call the situation ironic” (Sound & Sense, p. 121).

The word “sarcasm” comes from a Greek word that means ‘to tear flesh.’ “Sarcasm is simply bitter or cutting speech, intended to wound feelings” (Sound & Sense, p. 117). Often sarcasm distorts the truth in order to ridicule. Satire is word used for certain types of literature. Like sarcasm, satire also intends to ridicule. Unlike sarcasm, which sole intention is to hurt feelings, satire aspires to bring about reform.

“Sarcasm, we may say, is cruel, as a bully is cruel: it intends to give hurt. Satire is both cruel and kind, as a surgeon is cruel and kind: it gives hurt in the interest of the patient or of society. Irony is neither cruel nor kind: it is simply a device, like a surgeon’s scalpel, for performing any operation more skilfully” (Sound & Sense, p. 117).

Allusion

An allusion is a reference to something in history or previous literature (Sound & Sense, p. 135). “Allusions are a means of reinforcing the emotion or the ideas of one’s own work with the emotions or ideas of another work or occasion” (Sound & Sense, p. 136). Allusions are often made from old and classical texts such as Shakespeare, the King James Bible, Greek mythology, folklore, or other famous literature or great historic events.

E.E Cummings (1894-1962)

E(dward) E(stlin) Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University. In the early 1920s he lived in both New York City (where he was affiliated with the Dial magazine group, which included the poet Marianne Moore) and Paris (where he met the poets Ezra Pound, Hart Crane, and Archibald MacLeish). In his later years he lived primarily in New York. Cummings has always had a mixed critical reception, but at the time of his death he was one of the best-known and best-liked American poets. Like his paintings, Cummings’ poems reflect his devotion to the advantage; he was influenced by the impressionist and cubist movements in the visual arts and by imagism, vorticism, and futurism in literature. Through his radical experiments with syntax, typography, and line, he defamiliarized common subjects and thus challenged conventional ways of perceiving the world. Yet he respected many poetic conventions: regular rhyme schemes and traditional forms are often discernible under the fractured surface satires of “mostpeople” who blindly make their way thought the “unworld” are often scathing, and his poems convey an anarchistic, rebellious stance toward politics and religion, but Cummings, who celebrated joy, beauty, and sexual love, shared the Transcendentalists’ faith in humanity and their appreciation of the natural world. (Biographical Summary from Norton's Anthology of Poetry, 4th Edition.)

Assignment: Explication Essay (Due Thursday, Oct 15th)

Write an explication (of about 500 to 800 words) of a single poem by any of the poets we have discussed: Poe, Dickinson, Whitman, Frost, Sandburg or Cummings.

Before you write your essay, choose a poem you enjoyed. It should not be too short, because then you may not have enough to write about. Nor should it be too long, lest it take too much time and makes your essay too long. Read the poem you chose a couple of times and then use the “Understanding and Evaluating Poetry” (Sound & Sense, p. 11) questions as an aid to understand the poem better. Considering the answers you were able to give; you will be able to see what features of the poem you have much to say about, and what you have little to say about. Choose the points you can say the most about to use for your explication. You should have at least three main points (three body paragraphs). Find some way to link these points, for instance a theme, idea, function, etc.

An explication is a detailed description of a poem, often line by line. For your essay you need to write at least five paragraphs, of which the first is the introduction and the last paragraph is the conclusion. Therefore, you need three or more body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should focus on an important feature of the poem; for instance, the poem’s structure, the use of imagery, rhythm and rhyme, or some other poetic devices.

For an explication, your introductory paragraph should give some background information about the poet and the poem, as well as a summary of the poem – including the major themes in the poem. As an introductory paragraph, it should also include a thesis statement, which introduces the topic of the essay, as well as a preview/scope of what you will discuss in the paragraphs to follow.

The concluding paragraph should give a review of what you discussed and some final thoughts.

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

(Image Source: Chicago Public Radio)

Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois. He left school after the eighth grade to help support his family, but later attended Lombard College. In 1897 he embarked on a series of travels across America. His first collection of poetry, Chicago Poems, was published in 1914 and was followed by several highly acclaimed and immensely popular volumes, including Cornhusker (1918), which documents Sandburg’s war experience, and Smoke and Steel (1920), in which his disillusionment with post-World War Ⅰ America anticipates T.S. Renaissance, along with architect Frank Lloyd Wright, novelist Theodore Dreiser, and poets Vachel Lindsay and Edgar Lee Master. In the 1930s Sandburg became active in the Socialist movement. In addition to writing poetry, he devoted thirty years to the study of Abraham Lincoln and traveled the country in search of folk songs and ballads, which he collected as The American Song-Bag (1927). He also wrote novels and children’s stories. Overall, he shared Walt Whitman’s and the Futurists’ scene and admiration for the spirit of common laborers. Although his work eventually lost its once immense popularity, Sandburg’s interest in and passion for ordinary life never waned. (Biographical Summary from Norton's Anthology of Poetry, 4th Edition.)