Chapter 6

1. Chapter 6 Symbol, Allegory

2. Symbol • Roughly defined as something that means something more than what it is

3. Image, Metaphor, and Symbol • Shade into each other and are sometimes difficult to distinguish • Image – only what it is • Metaphor – something other than what it is • Symbol – what it is and something more – functions both literally and figuratively at the same time

4. From Perrine • Image – A shaggy brown dog was rubbing its back on a white picket fence. – Talking about nothing but a dog and am therefore presenting an image. • Metaphor – Some dirty dog stole my wallet at the party – I am not talking about a dog at all therefore I am using a metaphor. • Symbol – You can’t teach an old dog new tricks – talking about not only dogs but anyone

5. Images do not change • Images do not cease to be when they are incorporated into metaphors or symbols.

6. Most difficult • The symbol is the most difficult and the most richest poetic figures. • Can suggest a great variety of meanings – like an opal – multi faceted. • Look at the road, what was it? • Some poets identify their symbols, some do not. Frost does by the last line. • Meanings ray out from a symbol – use the greatest tact in its interpretation – we must not let loose and let our imaginations go ballooning up among the clouds

7. Preferable • To miss a symbol than to misinterpret it.

8. Allegory • A narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface. • Sometimes defined as an extended metaphor and sometimes as a series of related symbols. • BUT – instead of a conceit it involves a system of related comparisons rather than one long drawn out one. • AND differs from symbols because it puts less emphasis on the images for their own sake and more on the ulterior meanings, fixed meanings. Meanings do not ray out like in symbol.

9. Popularity • Allegory was very popular in medieval and renaissance writings but in modern literature it is not as popular. • It has popularly been used to disguise political meaning rather than reveal it.

10. Final remark • Look at poems and show that the context of the poem determines the limits of its symbolic meanings.

11. Chapter 7 • Paradox, Overstatement, Understatement, Irony

12. Paradox • An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. Can be a situation or a statement. Aesop’s tale is a paradoxical situation. • Verbal paradox – damn with faint praise

13. Paradoxical statement • The contradiction usually stems from one of the words being used figuratively or with more than one denotation.

14. Value • 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.

15. Overstatement, understatement, and verbal irony • Overstatement – saying more • Understatement – saying less • Verbal irony saying the opposite of what is really meant

16. Overstatement • Hyperbole – is simply exaggerration in service of the truth – it adds emphasis to what you really mean

17. Understatement • Saying less than what one means – can exist in what one says or how one says it – stating the truth with less force than what the situation calls for.

18. Irony • Has meaning that extend beyond its use merely as a figure of speech • Verbal irony – often confused with satire and sarcasm • Sarcasm – bitter or cutting speech intended to wound the feelings • Satire – ridicule of human folly or vice with higher purpose – reform. • Irony may be used in the service of sarcasm or satire - Look at the example on 753 • Irony is neither cruel or kind – it is simply a device.