WISDOM POETRY CLASS - LESSON 5 IMAGERY, REPETITION, HYBERBOLE, OXYMORON, APOSTROPHE, ALLEGORY IMAGERY: is the use of descriptive language that appeals to the senses. It can be created by using other figure of speech such as similes, metaphors, and personification. EXAMPLES: The peaceful white dove flew gracefully over the towering treetops. HYPERBOLE: is exaggerated statements. EXAMPLES: I was so hungry that I ate the whole cow. He was so skinny that when he turned sideways he was as thin as a nickle. OXYMORON: is the combination of two words that contradict each other EXAMPLES: jumbo shrimp deafening silence freezer burn living dead Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create; O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! (I.i.176-180) (taken from Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet) APOSTROPHE: from the Greek word meaning "turning away." It is a figure of speech where a person or thing is being addressed, but it is not present. It may also be addressing an inanimate object as if it were alive.
ALLEGORY: is when characters, places, or other items are symbols of something else. The symbolic or underlying meaning may refer to social, religious, or political significance. For example, in Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress the main character, Christian is on journey looking for the Celestial city where he encounters problems and dangers. Each problem that he encounters stands for some other problem in the spiritual life. Readings: A Pizza the Size of the Sun - Jack Prelutsky I'm making a pizza the size of the sun, a pizza that's sure to weigh more than a ton, a pizza too massive to pick up and toss, a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce. I'm topping my pizza with mountains of cheese, with acres of peppers, pimentos and peas, with mushrooms, tomatoes, and sausage galore, with every last olive they had at the store. My pizza is sure to be one of a kind, my pizza will leave other pizzas behind, my pizza will be a delectable treat that all who love pizza are welcome to eat. The oven is hot, I believe it will take a year and a half for my pizza to bake. I hardly can wait till my pizza is done, my wonderful pizza the size of the sun.
The Shark - E.J. Pratt He seemed to know the harbour, So leisurely he swam; His fin, Like a piece of sheet-iron, Three-cornered, And with knife-edge, Stirred not a bubble As it moved With its base-line on the water. His body was tubular And tapered And smoke-blue, And as he passed the wharf He turned, And snapped at a flat-fish That was dead and floating. And I saw the flash of a white throat, And a double row of white teeth, And eyes of metallic grey, Hard and narrow and slit. Then out of the harbour, With that three-cornered fin Shearing without a bubble the water Lithely, Leisurely, He swam-- That strange fish, Tubular, tapered, smoke-blue, Part vulture, part wolf, Part neither-- for his blood was cold.
The Folly of Being Comforted - William Butler Yeats One that is ever kind said yesterday: "Your well-beloved's hair has threads of grey, And little shadows come about her eyes; Time can but make it easier to be wise Though now it seems impossible, and so All that you need is patience." Heart cries, "No, I have not a crumb of comfort, not a grain. Time can but make her beauty over again: Because of that great nobleness of hers The fire that stirs about her, when she stirs, Burns but more clearly. O she had not these ways When all the wild Summer was in her gaze." Heart! O heart! if she'd but turn her head, You'd know the folly of being comforted. To A Snowflake - Francis Thompson (What heart could have thought you' -- Past our devisal (O filigree petal!) Fashioned so purely, Fragilely, surely, From what Paradisal Imagineless metal, Too costly for cost' Who hammered you, wrought you, From argentine vapor' -- "God was my shaper. Passing surmisal, He hammered, He wrought me, From curled silver vapor, To lust of His mind -- Thou could'st not have thought me!
So purely, so palely, Tinily, surely, Mightily, frailly, Insculped and embossed, With His hammer of wind, And His graver of frost." London 1802 - William Wordsworth Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour; England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay. Time, Real and Imaginery: An Allegory Samuel Taylor ON the wide level of a mountain's head (I knew not where, but 'twas some faery place), Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread, Two lovely children run an endless race, A sister and a brother! This far outstripp'd the other; Yet ever runs she with reverted face, And looks and listens for the boy behind: For he, alas! is blind!
O'er rough and smooth with even step he pass'd, And knows not whether he be first or last.