Terminology linked to figurative language

Allusion A reference to another book, event, person or place. The allusion is usually implied or hinted, so the reader is given the pleasure of seeing it and understanding the effect it creates. Sometimes the effect is to make what is being said more significant, more ambiguous or more amusing. In Pope's The Rape of the Lock, Belinda is shown to have bright and sparkling eyes:

Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazer strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.

It is a radiant picture but one qualified by the allusion to St Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus says that God sends the sun to shine on everybody. The presence of that allusion suggests that those fascinated by Belinda, and maybe Belinda herself, have a distorted sense of values in that they confuse the human with the divine.

Ambiguity The capacity of a word or words to mean two or more different things. In poetry this capacity is valued, because the meanings of poems are thereby enriched. When discussing ambiguity, you should show that the same words could have different meanings. For instance, in Blake's 'London' there are the lines:
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening Church appalls ...
'Blackening' is ambiguous. Does it meant the soot from chimneys has blackened the Church, or is the Church actively blackening society? You will also probably need to discuss the tone of the poem, because a poet often makes it clear that a poem is deliberately ambiguous.

Complex     A line, sentence, image, scene or whole work which consists of several closely connected ideas or feelings. You can use the term when you are trying to stress that the meaning, emotion or construction of a work is rich and varied. It is important to understand that the term implies that though a work has many elements, it is still unified. Therefore, it is often used as a term of praise. You should not, however, assume that only complex literature is good. There is also a pleasure and a value in simplicity.

Compression       A term used when talking about poetry to indicate the way in which writers concentrate meaning by cutting down the number of words. The experience there- fore is of meaning concentrated in a few words. In many metaphors the whole figurative force is compressed into one word. Sometimes, as in these lines from Browning's ... "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"-, compressed writing is direct, concentrated and close to notes or shorthand.

                 grey plain all round:
Nothing but plain to the horizon's bound.
I might go on; nought else remained to do.

Conceit       A highly elaborate image that seems on first acquaintance far-fetched but yet which, with thought, is seen to be appropriate. It is strange but true. You should try to convey the sense of shock, the challenge to thought, and the pleasure of discovering that the image is apt. The most famous example is from Donne's 'Valediction: forbidding mourning', where he speaks of a husband and wife's souls as being a pair of compasses:

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two,
Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.

The shock is that the insubstantial soul should be compared to 'stiff twin compasses'; the challenge to thought comes when the third and fourth lines are read, and the pleasure is of seeing that the image is delightfully logical - she is stable but will move as he moves, because they are really one.

Denotations and Connotations    The denotations of a word are its standard range of meanings, the connotations its additional meanings that emerge through association, suggestion, and emotional undertones. Writers, particularly poets, often exploit a word's connotations, so you should look to see if their words work in this way. For instance, the denotations of the word 'flat' are a smooth, unbroken surface; its connotations are lifeless, dull and uninteresting.

Epic Simile    The comparison of one thing in terms of another in which the idea introduced to make the comparison (the vehicle) is developed in a lengthy passage to form a vivid picture. Epic similes are effective when there is an appropriateness in the comparison. For instance, in Book I of Milton's Paradise Lost the fallen angels rising from the burning lake of Hell are compared to the plague of locusts brought down upon Egypt by Amram's son - Moses:

   As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son in Egypt's evil day
Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad angels seen
Hovering on wing under the cope of hell ...

The appropriateness is not just a visual one; Milton shows that both the locusts and fallen angels were a plague - the former upon Egypt, the latter upon the whole of mankind.

Epigram    Either a brief, usually witty, statement or a short poem which makes a simple but often dramatic or humorous point. You will probably use the first meaning more than the second. Often it is useful to call a deft line or remark epigrammatic. By that you are saying it is punchy and memorable. T. S. Eliot's 'Whispers of Immortality' has a grimly epigrammatic thrust:

Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures underground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.

Foreshadowing         A term used when an author gives a hint or clue to events that will happen later in a text. Foreshadowing can take many forms, but includes symbolism, parallel events & characters and intertextual or subtextual references.

Image and Imagery   Any figurative or descriptive language that appeals to one of the five senses is called an image. Images could also be metaphors, similes, symbols and personification, as well as examples of non-figurative description. Images are impressive because they make ideas concrete. They also create atmosphere and can be used to establish a pattern within a poem. It is sometimes helpful to show how an image works in some detail. For instance, in Macbeth Macduff tries to put into words the horror of finding that Duncan, King of Scotland, has been murdered. He uses a very complex imagery to do this:

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious Murther hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed Temple, and stole thence
The life o' th' building!

The death of Duncan is first seen in the image of 'Confusion' as an artist or craftsman, making his 'masterpiece'. Then 'Murther' (murder) is seen as a thief breaking into a religious building. (See also Abstract and concrete, Metaphor and simile, Personification and Symbol.)

Irony     The effect produced when a reader sees that there is a gap between the words that are being said and the real significance of those words. There are different kinds of gaps. The gap between words and truth occurs when something the reader knows to be mistaken is said. A second type of gap, or discrepancy, is between the words and meaning. This occurs when the reader sees that the real significance of what is being said is very different from what the speaker supposes. The gap can lie between intention and result. A speaker can intend something but the reader will see that the result will not be what is expected. This is also called dramatic irony. There is also the irony of one character interpreting the world one way, whilst the reader is led to see that this is false. In all cases of irony, someone is put at a disadvantage because others, usually the author and reader, can see more clearly than he or she can.
When you write about irony, you should make clear who is placed in a position of advantage and who is at a disadvantage. You should also remember that irony can produce different emotional effects. It can be bitter, comic, serious, tragic, sad, and so on. In your writing you should try to bring over how irony can make the reader or audience change attitudes to a character. For instance, you may be horrified by the callous inhumanity of Lady Macbeth, who believes that, after the murder of Duncan, 'A little water clears us of this deed'. When, however, she walks in her sleep and is seen to be perpetually washing her hands, you may see the terrible irony that 'a little water' can't clear her of guilt. When you see the irony, your horror may turn to pity.

Mental Landscape  The effect created when a landscape is portrayed in terms of the feel- ings of the author or character, who views it. The outer world thus reflects the inner world of thoughts and feelings. The effect is particularly prominent in late eighteenth-century and much of nineteenth-century literature. Mental landscapes are often strangely impressive. In Wordsworth's The Prelude there is a passage in which the poet descends from the Alps through a deep ravine; the vast and sublime landscape echoes the workings of his own imagination. Sometimes a mental landscape works by using words appropriate to both the external scene and the state of mind. In Tennyson's 'Locksley Hall' the protagonist speaks of the 'dreary, dreary moorland'; the word 'dreary' applies to what he can see and how he feels.

Metaphor and Simile The comparison of one thing in terms of another; in metaphor there is an implicit identity, whereas in simile the comparison is introduced by the words 'like' or 'as'. Metaphors are thus more compressed and economical than similes, though similes are closer to ordinary speech, and there is a distinct pleasure in following through the comparison from the object being presented to that in terms of which it is presented. If you wish to distinguish one from the other, the terms 'tenor' (the object presented) and 'vehicle' (that in terms of which it is presented) can be useful. Thus, in the metaphor for a church from Larkin's 'Church Going' - 'this special shell' - church is the tenor and shell the vehicle, or in Larkin's simile from 'Ambulances' - 'Closed like confessionals' - the tenor is ambulances and the vehicle confessionals.

Onomatopoeia The effect that is created when the sounds of words mime or resemble the sounds of the object being described. Individual words such as 'crash' or 'buzz' are onomatopoeic, but the term is more generally used of an effect created by a number of words. Onomatopoeia is usually worth discussing when it creates atmosphere. In Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale' one stanza closes with this line: 'The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.' The onomatopoeic 'murmurous' combines with the long vowels and the alliteration on 'm' and 's' to produce an atmosphere of languid ease.

Overtones and Undertones   The associations of a word or words. Overtones are the clear and obvious associations, while undertones are those meanings which are hinted and implied. However, the two words are often used interchangeably to refer to words' wider meanings and emotional colouring. It is often very useful to point out the overtones and undertones of a word. You can do this by pointing to the number of ways in which a word is used in ordinary speech.

Pathetic Fallacy   The way in which a writer gives human feelings to an object that could not possibly have them. The effect it creates is very close to personification. Its origin is probably in the very common practice people have of transferring their own feelings about something to the thing itself. Therefore, pathetic fallacy is often an indication of what the writer or character is feeling. In Tennyson's 'Ulysses' the sea 'Moans round with many voices'. The word 'moans' indicates the state of mind of the protagonist. (See also Mental landscape and Personification.)

Personification    The effect created when a non-human object or quality is written about as if it were a human being. Keats personifies the Grecian urn when he calls it a 'still unravished bride of quietness', and Gray personifies wealth and beauty when he writes of 'all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave'. You should always try to characterise the effect of personification. Often, it makes the object seem close to both author and reader, and, in some cases, it can make the object or quality personified seem more lively and engaging. (See also mental landscape and Pathetic fallacy.)

Setting    The context in which the events in a literary work take place. Settings are often significant because they reflect in a number of ways the characters and events. The nature of characters, the moods of characters, the plight of characters and the significance of what is going on are often evident in the locations and surroundings. The abrasively new buildings of Alec D'Urberville's home indicate his nouveau riche status; the wild and threatening marshes of Great Expectations echo the guilt of young Pip; the lonely moors of Jane Eyre reflect her abandonment, and the hollow in which Sergeant Troy demon- strates his sword play to Bathsheba evokes the sexual potential of their relationship.

Subjective and Objective   A thought is subjective when it is concerned with the personal reaction of somebody, and objective when it ignores what the individual feels about something but concentrates on the object itself. Writing about literature should always be a blend of both. You should write about the words of a poem, novel or play, and about your subjective reactions to these.

Suspension of Belief   A term introduced by Coleridge in relation to the conventions of the theatre. When a member of an audience accepts stage conventions, including things like ghosts or witches, he or she willingly suspends belief or disbelief. That is to say, conventions are accepted as real in the theatre, and the issue of whether or not they can be believed in outside the theatre is not raised.

Symbol      An object that stands for, points to and shares in a significant reality over and beyond it. Blake's 'The Tyger' stands for and points to creative energy but it is also an instance of that creative energy. Some symbols are traditional, while other symbols are specially created by authors.
You can learn about traditional symbols, but need to be alert to the resonances of words and their context to recognise ones that are newly made by a poet or novelist. For instance, when you read Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind', it is important to know that the wind is a symbol for inspiration. When, however, you read Ted Hughes's 'Hawk Roosting' you should try to see that the way the hawk is presented makes it a symbol of the terrible destructiveness that Hughes believes is at the heart of nature.