AP English Lit. Terms 1 Metaphorical Devices & Imagery

1. AP English Lit. Terms 1Metaphorical Devices & Imagery Hilltop High School Mrs. Demangos

2. Metaphor • A figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. It may take one of four forms: • That in which the literal term and the figurative term are both named • That in which the literal term is named and the figurative term implied • That in which the literal term is implied and the figurative named • That in which both the literal and the figurative terms are implied.

3. Metaphor • That in which the literal term and the figurative term are both named: “Life’s but a walking shadow” “Sorrow is my own yard…” Literal=Figurative Life=Shadow Sorrow=Yard

4. Metaphor • That in which the literal term is named and the figurative term implied: “Out in the porch’s sagging floor, Leaves got up in a coil and hissed…” Literal=Figurative Leaves=Snake “hissed”

5. Metaphor • That in which the literal term is implied and the figurative named “It sifts from Leaden Sieves— It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road—” Literal=Figurative It(snow)=wool

6. Metaphor • That in which both the literal and the figurative terms are implied. “Itsifts from Leaden Sieves— It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road—” Literal=Figurative It(snow)=(flour)sifts

7. Simile • Simile and metaphor are both used as a means of comparing things that are essentially unlike. • In a simile the comparison is expressed by the use of some word or phrase, such as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, seems.

8. “Harlem” by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

9. Simile: Deferred dream shrivels like a raisin What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Simile: Deferred dream becomes diseased, infected like a sore

10. Personification • Personification consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept. • It is a subtype of metaphor.

11. Personification • When autumn is described as a harvester “sitting careless on a granary floor” or “on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep”, Keats is personifying a season. “To Autumn” by John Keats 

12. Personification • When Sylvia Plath makes a mirror speak and think, she is personifying an object. • Though the mirror speaks and thinks, we continue to visualize it as a mirror. 

13. Archetype • From the Greek arkhetupos, meaning “first molded as a pattern.” • It is often used to refer to characters, plots, themes, and images that recur throughout the history of literature, both oral and written. • Archetypes are recognized as designs or patterns.

14. Archetype • A pattern or model of an action (such as lamenting the dead), a character type (rebellious youth), or an image (paradise as a garden) that recurs consistently enough in life and literature to be considered universal.

15. Archetype • Although the term archetype has long been used in its most general sense, the psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, gave it new meaning. • Jung theorized that certain ideas, actions, and images—rivalry between brothers, for example—arose out of early experiences of the human race, passed along through the “collective subconscious of mankind”, and are present in the subconscious of every individual.

16. Archetype • According to Jung, these archetypes emerge in the imagery of dreams and also in myths and other literature. • Some archetypes are used so often in certain literary genres that they become conventions, or distinguishing features of the genre.

17. Allusion • A figure of speech that makes a brief reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object. Biblical allusions are frequent in English literature. • Ex. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, “A Daniel come to judgment.”

18. Allusion • Strictly speaking, allusion is always indirect. It seeks, by tapping the knowledge and memory of the reader, to secure a resonant emotional effect from the associations already existing in the reader’s mind. • Ex. Herman Melville names a ship the Pequod in Moby-Dick. The reader, knowing the Pequod tribe to be extinct, will suspect the vessel to be fated for extinction.

19. Allusion • The effectiveness of allusion depends on a body of knowledge shared by writer and reader. • Complex literary allusion is characteristic of much modern writing, and discovering the meaning and value of the allusions is frequently essential to understanding the work.

20. Metonymy • Greek for “a change of name”. Substitution of associated word for word itself. • metonymy is a figure of speech. It substitutes the name of a related object, person, or idea for the subject at hand. • Example: • Crown- substituted for monarchy • The White House- for the President of the U.S. • Shakespeare- for the works of Shakespeare • the Turf- for horse racing.

21. Synecdoche • Greek for “taking together”. A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole thing. • Synecdoche is a form of metonymy. • Example: • wheelsin “I’ve got wheels.” Stands for car. • hands in “All hands on deck!” Stands for sailors. • threadsas in “Nice threads!” Stand for clothes.

22. Motif • Recurrent image, idea, word, phrase, action, object, situation, or theme in specific piece of literature. It can appear in various works or throughout the same work. • When applied to several different works, motif refers to a recurrent theme, such as the CARPE DIEM motif—the idea that life is short, time is fleeting, and one must make the most of the present moment. • Example: Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.” 

23. Motif • When applied to a single work, motif refers to a repetition that tends to unify the work by bringing to mind its earlier occurrences and the impressions that surround them. • Example: the periodic striking of clocks in Virginia Wolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway • Example: the repetition of patterns—of a garden, a dress, a fan, and of life itself in Amy Lowell’s poem “Patterns.”

24. Symbol • An object, character, figure, or color that is used to represent an abstract idea or concept. • For example: the two roads in Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” symbolize the choice between two paths in life.  • Unlike an emblem, a symbol may have different meanings in different contexts.

25. Symbol • Some symbols come into a story from a shared language or symbols. • Traditional symbolic associations: • Dawn of hope • Dark forest of evil • Clay with death • Water with fertility • Light for knowledge or enlightenment.

26. Symbol • Some symbols have a special personal meaning for the writer. • Example: Seamus Heaney—imaginative power staked in the image of the pump: the pump, like his poetry, taps hidden springs to conduct what is sustaining and life-giving; it is a symbol of nourishment.

27. Symbol • Literary symbols are rich in associations. • An ancient symbol in Western culture is the garden: the Garden of Eden was a scene of innocence and happiness, before the fall of Adam. • It is a symbol of nature seen as fruitful and life-sustaining. It may suggest the oasis in the desert.

28. Symbol • Symbols may be ambiguous. • Example: in Melville’s Moby Dick the mythic white whale stands for everything that is destructive in nature—the whale destroys the ship. At other times, it stands for everything that is serenely beautiful in nature.

29. Symbol • Symbols acquire their full meaning in the context of the story. • Example: In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the letter A for adultery becomes a symbol of the consciousness of guilt, of our doubts about who is truly guilty.

30. Image • Sensory detail • A word, phrase, or figure of speech that addresses the senses, suggesting mental pictures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, or actions.

31. Image • Images offer sensory impressions to the reader and also convey emotions and moods through their verbal pictures.

32. Abstract/Concrete • Classifications of imagery. • For instance, calling a fruit "pleasant" or "good" is abstract, while calling a fruit "cool" or "sweet" is concrete. • The preference for abstract or concrete imagery varies from century to century.

33. Abstract/Concrete • Philip Sidney praised concrete imagery in poetry in his 1595 treatise, Apologie for Poetrie. • A century later, Neoclassical thought tended to value the generality of abstract thought. • In the early 1800s, the Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley once again preferred concreteness.