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.

Figurative Language I

There are many types of figurative language. In this post we will look at six types, namely: metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, and synecdoche.

Simile & Metaphor

If I say the sun is like an orange, then an orange becomes a symbol for the sun. They are similar in color and in form (spherical). When I use terms such as "like", "as", "than", "resembles", we call it simile. "The sun is like an orange", is an example of a simile. When I omit such words of reference, and merely say X = Y, it is a metaphor. For example, "The sun is an orange" is a metaphor.

Sound & Sense (p. 72-74) explains that metaphor can take one of four forms, “depending on whether the literal and figurative terms are respectively named or implied.”

Personification

When a thing, animal or something abstract (e.g. Truth), is given the attributes of a human, it is called personification. In Dickinson’s poem “Apparently with no surprise” the flowers are described as “happy”; this is an example of personification.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe is a way of speaking to someone (dead) or something which one does not ordinarily speak to. For example, if I speak to my chair, or if I speak to Elvis Presley, it is called apostrophe. When I speak to my pet cat it would not be considered apostrophe because people often speak to their pets. However, if my cat is dead and I then speak to it, it would be considered apostrophe.

Synecdoche & Metonymy

Sound & Sense (p. 78) explains: “In contrast to the preceding figures that compare unlike things are two figures that rest on congruences or correspondences. Synecdoche (the use of the part for the whole) and metonymy (the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant) are alike in that both substitute some significant detail or quality of an experience for the experience itself.”

If I ask you to give me a hand, your "hand" stands for the whole of you – this is called synecdoche. Similarly if you bought a new car and I compliment your new car by saying “Nice wheels!” then the "wheels", which is a part of the car, represents the whole car. This is another example of synecdoche.

When I describe the library as “a house of pens”, it is metonymy. A library is not a house of pens; rather it is a house of books. However, pens are associated with writing and with books. Pens and books are therefore closely related although not actually part of the same thing. When figures are compared that are closely related (although not part of the same thing), it is called metonymy.

Consider the following questions from the "Reviewing Chapter Five" section in Sound & Sense:

1. Distinguish between language used literally and language used figuratively, and consider why poetry is often figurative.
2. Define the figures of comparison (simile and metaphor, personification and apostrophe), and rank them in order of their emotional effectiveness.
3. Define the figures of congruence or correspondence (synecdoche and metonymy).
4. Review the four major contributions of figurative language.
   

Figurative Language & Figures of Speech

Figurative language is language with a deeper and often aesthetic meaning and “cannot be taken literally” (Compare with connotation); a figure of speech is “any way of saying something other than the ordinary way,” (Sound & Sense, p. 71).
Figurative language contributes to poetry in four major ways (Sound & Sense, p. 79, 80):

1. Figurative language affords us imaginative pleasure by linking different things in interesting ways.
2. Figures of speech bring additional imagery into verse, making the abstract more concrete, and making poetry more sensuous.
3. Figures of speech add emotional intensity to otherwise informative statements.
4. Because figures of speech are so rich in meaning, they can say more in a small space.
   

Imagery

When language evoke our senses it is called imagery; everytime a poem makes us imagine something – something we can see (visual imagery), touch (tactile imagery), smell (olfactory imagery), taste (gustatory imagery), or hear (auditory imagery). When we can imagine movement it is known as kinesthetic imagery. Also, when the poetry makes us imagine internal sensations such as thirst, hunger, fatique, even nausea, it is known as organic imagery. Sound & Sense describes imagery as “the representation through language of sense experience” (p. 56).

Try to answer the following questions from the “Reviewing Chapter Four” section in Sound & Sense (p. 59):

1. State the definition of poetic imagery.
5. Draw the distinction between abstract statements and concrete, image-bearing statements, providing examples.
6. Demonstrate that ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings contribute to the richness of poetic language.

Denotation & Connotation

A word has typically three parts; namely its (1) sound, its (2) denotation, and its (3) connotation.

A word's denotative meaning is its basic meaning as you would typically find in a dictionary. Apart from its denotation(s) a word may also have connotative meaning(s). The denotation for “red” is the color it represents. However, “red” can also remind us of other things like “passion”, “love”, “blood”, and “danger”. These latter meanings are connotations to “red”.

Poets often choose words not only for their sound and denotation, but also for their connotations. “A frequent misconception of poetic language is that poets seek always the most beautiful or noble-sounding words. What they really seek are the most meaningful words, and these vary from one context to another” (Sound & Sense, p. 45).

Exercise Questions:

Make sure that you can answer the following questions from the “Reviewing Chapter Three”-section in Sound & Sense, p. 48:

1. Distinguish between connotation and denotation as components of words.

3. Explore the ways in which a word may have multiple denotations, and multiple connotations, showing that different denotations may gave different connotations.

4. Explore the ways in which the context will determine which denotations and which connotations are relevant in a poem.

5. Show how levels of diction may characterize the speaker in a poem. (Compare with question #2 in the previous post.)

Types of Poetry

There are basically three types of poetry; i.e. Lyrical Poetry, Epic Poetry and Dramatic Poetry. There is also a special type known as a Ballad.

Lyrical Poetry

"Lyric", derives from the word "lyre" which is a type of stringed instrument. It therefore refers to music. Lyrical Poetry used to be sung. (That is why the words of songs are often referred to as the "lyrics" of the song.) A lyric tends to be relatively short and often convey the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker.

Most of the poems we will discuss in this course falls within the category of lyrical poetry.

Epic / Narrative Poetry

An epic is a type of story. Epic Poetry, also known as Narrative Poetry, are basically "storytelling poems". They tend to be very long, often several hundred lines, and are usually divided into several sections.

In this course we will not be dicussing any epics.

Dramatic Poetry

Dramatic Poetry is poetry that includes drama, i.e. it is theatrical. This means that it can be performed like a play. Sometimes there are many "characters" that are in dialogue. If only one "character" is speaking, it is called a monologue.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is considered a dramatic poem. Can you explain why?

A Ballad

A ballad is a special type of lyric, that tells a story. A ballad is therefore a mixture of lyrical and epic poetry.

Would you say that Edgar Allan Poe's "Eldorado" is a lyric or ballad?

Narrators and Narrative Layers

A narrator (sometimes called a speaker), is basically the “voice” that speaks in a text. The word “narrator” comes from “narrate”, which means to tell a narrative; i.e. to tell a story. The narrator of the poem is therefore the “persona” or “entity” that tells the “story”.

Take for example the poem “Eldorado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Who is telling the “story” of the knight in search of Eldorado? Is it the author (Edgar Allen Poe) that is telling this story? It might be, but it is not necessarily. Rather, Poe created another “voice”, i.e. the narrator, to speak on his behalf.

Also, the narrator in this poem is not the only speaker. There are two other speakers as well, namely the knight and the “pilgrim shadow”.

The following diagram shows a depiction of the three basic narrative layers, each with a pair of entities, namely the (1) author and (2) reader, the (3) narrator and (4) addressee, and (5) character 1 and (6) character 2.

(Diagram from the English Department of TTU)

Exercise:

Use the poem “Eldorado” and replace these entities in the diagram with their proxies. For example, replace character 1 with “the knight”.

...ooOoo...

When trying to understand a poem it helps to identify the speakers, as well as identify who they are speaking to. Ask yourself: Who is the author? When the author wrote this poem, did he have a specific audience/reader in mind? Who is the narrator? Who is the narrator’s audience; i.e. who are the narrator's addressees? Who are the speakers (i.e. characters)?

Sound & Sense (p. 11) gives 21 points and questions that you can use to understand and evaluate a poem.

Poetry?

(Image Source: Alvarado Public Library)

Below is the definition for "poetry" that you came up with in class.

Poetry is a form of literature. A poem is a relatively short aesthetic text that is usually rich in meaning, ideas, images, and emotions. Poetry uses different poetic devices such as metaphor and rhyme. It is often meant to be read vocally, because it includes words chosen for their sound quality.

Use this definition as your base and elaborate it to make your own definition of “poetry”. You can expect a question like the following in a future test or exam, counting anything from 5 to 10 points:

• Define “poetry”.

• What is a poem?

...ooOoo...

Make sure that you can answer the following questions from the "Reviewing Chapter One"-section in Sound & Sense, p. 10:

1. Differentiate between ordinary language and poetic language.
4. Explain the distinction between poetry and other imaginative literature.
5. Review the four dimensions of experience that poetry involves.