WHAT DO THEY WANT WHEN THEY ASK ME TO CONSIDER:
THEME- p. 30
ALLUSIONS- p. 32-33
POINT OF VIEW- p. 37-38
SATIRE- p. 39-40
IRONY- p. 41-44
SYMBOLISM p. 45-48
SPECIAL ADDENDUM- POETRY- p. 49-50
in Sound and Sense defines “imagery” as a mental picture, something seen in the mind’s eye and visual
imagery is the kind of imagery that occurs frequently in poetry. But an image
may also represent a sound, a smell, a taste, a tactile experience such as hardness, wetness, or cold, an internal
sensation such as hunger, thirst, nausea, or movement or tension in the muscles or joints.
get visceral reactions to strong images that make us squeamish, hungry, queasy, etc.
Consider your reaction to the mere mention of cockroaches crawling up your leg.
Consider your reaction to the mere thought of pizza, warm, crusty, fragrant, tomatoes, cheeses, pepperoni….STOP!!! Consider your reaction to the thought of the beach: warm, sunny, soft sand, good-looking
people in tight-fitting bathing suits. OK, I think you get the point. Images
are those pictures that you have conjured up. And the more vivid the imagery
is in your mind, the better your analysis of it will be. So, use your imagination!!
are asked for figurative language, remember this: figurative language includes any literary devices that help us
form pictures in our minds. Figurative language includes metaphors: “My room is a nuclear waste dump!” or similes: “My room looks like
World War III hit!” Any devices that help to create imagery are included in figurative language, so don’t get
thrown by this phrase.
material was contributed by Mrs. Becci McDaniel of the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin, Germany. Many thanks for her generous contributions!
A friend of mine years ago had a fun phrase he always used on rainy days: “Lovely
weather if you’re a duck!” Of course, he didn’t really mean
it was a beautiful day, and no one in our group of friends ever thought he was saying anything other than “the weather
all use phrases like my friend’s when we want to express a thought or emotion without saying it in a plain vanilla way. I remember teaching a class of English-as-a-Second-Language students at a junior college
in Texas on a day when the clouds were so black it was dark at noon. As I was
beginning the class period I happened to glance at the window at the back of the classroom and noticed the inky clouds. I hadn’t been out all morning and I was surprised to see what looked like a
serious storm blowing in so I exclaimed, “The sky is about to fall!” My
entire class turned around in their chairs to look out the window, then looked back at me in confusion. A bit later I again glanced at the window and saw the rain coming down heavily. This time I said, “Wow! It’s raining cats and
dogs!” This time my entire class got out of their seats to look out the
window and then demanded that I explain why I had just told them small animals were falling out of the sky. (And, yes, I did explain the idiomatic expressions.)
we use words in a way that deviates from their standard meaning so as to achieve a specific effect, we are using figurative language. This special use of words can take a number
of forms, including simile or metaphor, symbolism, irony, allegory, personification, and others. (Laurence Perrine says that some scholars have counted as many as 250 different forms .) While we generally think of figurative language as poetic language, we must keep in mind that we
all use these devices in our everyday conversations.
A simile is “a comparison between two distinctly
different things [which] is explicitly indicated by the word ‘like’ or ‘as’” (Abrams 97). Sven Birkerts says that “we resort to [both simile and metaphor] naturally whenever
we wish to give a special emphasis to our expression. Simply saying ‘He
was tall’ might not convey the desired effect. If we said, ‘He was
as tall as a giraffe,’ we would be using simile, which is the direct correlation of two things—in this case, person
and animal—by means of like, as,
than, or some other word establishing direct relation” (654). Beaty and Hunter
call this an “explicit” comparison (937), meaning that the comparison is clearly and specifically stated. The poem “Spring” by Robert Hass has a double simile:
A bearded bird-like man
(He looked like a Russian priest)
with imperial bearing
and a black ransacked raincoat)
turned to us, cleared
his cultural throat, and
told us both interminably
who Ugo Betti was (Birkerts 655).
The man is compared
to both a bird and a Russian priest. The effect of the comparison is to create
a visual image for the reader, allowing us to connect the appearance of the man with our own experiences in order to conjure
up a mental picture of the character.
Most of us remember being taught that a metaphor
is a comparison of two things that are not similar, without using “like” or “as.” Return to Birkerts’ comparison of a man and a giraffe. He
says, “If we dropped the connective word and simply stated, ‘He was a giraffe,’ then we would be using a
metaphor” (654). In a metaphor,
the comparison between the two things is “implicit”, or implied, rather than being specifically stated. Beaty and Hunter say the thing is “described as if it were something else” (937).
The actual drawing of the comparison is much
the same in both simile and metaphor, except that a simile tends to be a quick comparison, limited to a line or a phrase,
while a metaphor often elaborates on the comparison. When the metaphor functions
through a long section of a poem or passage (or even the entire poem), we call it an extended
Both similes and metaphors “may imply both
meaning and feeling; they may both explain something and invoke feelings about it. All
figurative language involves an attempt to clarify something and to help readers
feel a certain way about it” (Beaty and Hunter 943). The result is that similes and metaphors quite often incorporate
other literary devices, such as hyperbole (stating more than we mean, as in “He was a giraffe”), understatement
(stating less than we mean), imagery, or irony (Birkerts 655).
A poet will often create a pattern of comparison
throughout the poem. This “[allows] one comparison to suggest others until
a network of correspondences is created. When that network becomes part of the
governing idea of the poem..., it is called a conceit. The reader is called upon to recognize the logic of the comparison and to judge its applicability to the
A. Read the following poem.
Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
2. What is the primary metaphor expressed
in part 2 of the poem?
3. What is the overall effect of comparing
the part 1 metaphor to the part 2 metaphor?
4. How is the last line ironic in the context
of the extended metaphor?
B. Read the following poem.
Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
is using language that appeals to the senses.
What does that mean? Well, we could refine it more specifically and say
that imagery is using language that makes the reader or audience make a connection with one of the five senses—sight,
sound, smell, taste, or touch—but that doesn’t really give us a clearer idea of how this literary device works
Douglas Hunt defines “imagery” as
a word or a
phrase that brings to the reader’s mind the echo of a sensory experience....For most readers visual effects,
reminders of sights we’ve seen, are the most obvious images in most [literature], but any of our senses may be involved....[Authors]
might also evoke our sense of smell, taste, texture, or pressure on the skin. Occasionally
they even remind us of our body’s sense of itself: its internal pressures, its weight, the position of our arms and
Let’s look at “Traveling Through
the Dark” by William Stafford for some examples of imagery.
through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually
best to roll them into the canyon:
is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.
By glow of
the tail-light, I stumbled back of the car
by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened
already, almost cold.
her off; she was large in the belly.
touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was
warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
never to be born.
mountain road I hesitated.
The car aimed
ahead its lowered parking lights;
hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in
the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
group I could hear the wilderness listen.
hard for all of us—my only swerving—
her over the edge into the river.
“glow of the
tail-light” (line 5) probably makes most of us see in our mind the color red, since we know that tail-lights on cars
are always red.
Look for the references
to warmth (lines 7 and 10). These phrases are intended to make us feel the warmth
of the doe’s body: cold where the legs have already stiffened, but still warm in the belly where the fawn is. Compare this with the “glare of the warm exhaust” in line 15, which reminds us of feeling the
hot air coming out from the back of a car.
The diction choices
in lines 13-14 are a good example of how an author uses diction to communicate images.
The denotative meanings—the lights of the car shining out in front and the engine idling—become imagery
by Stafford’s use of the verbs “aimed” and “purred”, so that the connotative meaning of the
lines (the imagery, if you will) is a large animal waiting patiently to unleash its power.
The word “aimed” indicates a creature/being who is in control and deliberately directing the light, while
“purred” reminds us of the contented sounds a cat makes. Together,
then, the two lines draw on our experiences with large cats which permit us to connect the lines to an occurrence such as
a trip to the zoo to watch lions and tigers, thus allowing us to understand Stafford’s meaning in the poem.
M.H. Abrams, in his A Glossary of Literary Terms, breaks down the concept of imagery into three distinct ways it is used:
(that is, “images” taken collectively) is used to signify all the objects and qualities of sense perception referred
to in a poem or other work of literature, whether by literal description, by allusion,
or in the vehicles (the secondary references) of its similes and metaphors....The
term image should not be taken to imply a visual reproduction of the object referred to; some readers [in certain passages]
experience visual images and some do not....Also, “imagery” in this usage includes not only visual sense qualities,
but also qualities that are auditory, tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and
kinesthetic (sensations of movement)....
is used, more narrowly, to signify only specific descriptions of visible objects and scenes, especially if the description
is vivid and particularized, as in this passage from Marianne Moore’s “The Steeple-Jack”:
a sea the purple of the
peacock’s neck is
paled to greenish azure
as Dürer changed
the pine tree of the Tyrol
to peacock blue and guinea grey.
in recent usage, imagery signifies figurative language, especially the vehicles of metaphors and similes (121).
Sven Birkerts notes the connection between imagery
and devices which make comparisons, such as metaphor and simile. He says, “in
a sense, imagery itself, even when no likeness is evoked, is a kind of metaphor. That
is, the poet trusts in the power of the depicted things, that they can stand for, or suggest, moods and inner states”
(639). Thus, the “echo of a sensory experience” that Hunt refers
to in his definition of imagery is, in fact, a comparison between the words on the page that express the color of the peacock,
the smell of spring in a forest, the taste of chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream, the sound of a baby wailing, or the touch
of silk on an arm and the experiences in our lives that come to mind when we read or hear these words.
Of course, how clearly we make the connection
depends a great deal on how specific the author is in choosing words. This doesn’t
mean that something must “be completely described. One or two especially
sharp and representative details will ordinarily serve, allowing the reader’s imagination to fill in the rest”
(Perrine 562). Masterful writers can get a depth of meaning out of only a word
(The following poem
and discussion of its imagery are taken from Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense.)
Meeting at Night
by Robert Browning
The gray sea and the
long black land;
And the yellow half-moon
large and low;
And the startled little
waves that leap
In fiery ringlets
from their sleep,
As I gain the cove
with pushing prow,
And quench its speed
i’ the slushy sand.
Then a mile of warm
Three fields to cross
till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane,
the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of
a lighted match,
And a voice less loud,
through its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts
beating each to each!
at Night” is a poem about love. It makes, one might say, a number of statement
about love: being in love is a sweet and exciting experience; when one is in
love everything seems beautiful, and the most trivial things become significant; when one is in love one’s sweetheart
seems the most important object in the world. But the poet actually tells us none of these things directly. He does not even use the
word love in his poem. His business
is to communicate experience, not information. He does this largely in two ways. First, he presents us with a specific situation, in which a lover goes to meet his
sweetheart. Second, he describes the lover’s journey so vividly in terms
of sense impressions that the reader not only sees and hears what the lover saw and heard but also shares his anticipation
in the poem contains some image, some appeal to the senses: the gray sea, the long black land, the yellow half-moon, the startled
little waves with their fiery ringlets, the blue spurt of the lighted match—all appeal to our sense of sight and convey
not only shape but also color and motion. The warm sea-scented beach appeals
to the senses of both smell and touch. The pushing prow of the boat on the slushy
sand, the tap at the pane, the quick scratch of the match, the low speech of the lovers, and the sound of their hearts beating—all
appeal to the sense of hearing.
Read the following poem. Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
by Seamus Heaney
Our shells clacked on the plates.
My tongue was a filling estuary,º
My palate hung was starlight:
As I tasted the salty Pleiadesº
ºstar cluster in the
Orion dipped his foot into the water.
Alive and violated
They lay on their beds of ice:
Bivalvesº: the split bulb
ºa molusk with a
And philandering sigh of ocean.
Millions of them ripped and shucked and scattered.
We had driven to that coast
Through flowers and limestone
And there we were, toasting friendship,
Laying down a perfect memory
In the cool of thatch and crockery.
Over the Alps, packed deep in hay and snow,
The Romans hauled their oysters south to Rome:
I saw damp panniersº disgorge
ºcarrying baskets for
The frond-lipped, brine stung
horses or mules
Glut of privilege
And was angry that my trust could not repose
In the clear light, like poetry or freedom
Leaning in from sea. I ate the day
Deliberately, that its tang
Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb.
1. Note all the images. To which sense does each appeal to?
2. Are the images linked in any way?
3. How do the images throughout the poem prepare you for the last 3 lines?
or word choice is something to which we have devoted considerable time. Here
are some final thoughts on the subject. Perrine says that CONNOTATION suggests
beyond what it expresses: its overtones or meanings. The word “home”
for instance would be denoted in the dictionary as the place where one resides, but it connotes security, love, comfort, and
family. The words childlike and childish both mean “characteristic of a child,” but
childlike suggest meekness, innocence and wide-eyed wonder, while childish suggest pettiness,
willfulness and temper tantrums. Denotation is the dictionary’s definition of the word. Connotation expresses the emotional associations that accompany the word. The emotional effect
of a word often depends not only on the thing designated by the word but also on what is suggested. Connotation involves the implications and emotional overtones that words or phrases carry with
them. For example: collie
is denotative, mutt is connotative. Dog can be denotative or connotative
according to the context, the person’s past experiences and the frame of reference.
What is the connotative differences between “female athlete” and “tomboy”; between “assertive”
and “aggressive” ; between “naked” and “nude”?
of words as the crayons in a box of crayola. Many crayons can be called blue,
but there are so many different shades. Words have nuances, insinuations, implications;
they can be extraordinarily subtle, and you must be perceptive and attuned to the nuances in language.
a good clue: ask yourself: What
leaps off the page at me?
What word has he used that I never would?
How has he made me see this in a new light?
WRITERS ARE ARTISTS, BUT UNLIKE PAINTERS WHO HAVE CANVAS, BRUSHES AND PAINT, THE WRITER ONLY HAS WORDS TO PAINT HIS PICTURES,
SUBTLE SHADES OF MEANING, INSTEAD OF
OR MORE PASTEL COLORS. HE ALSO HAS THE POWER OF WORDS TO CREATE FEAR, TENSION,
AND MYSTERY. WHERE THE PAINTER MIGHT USE BOLD COLORS: RED, BLACK, NAVY BLUE, THE WRITER HAS POWERFUL LANGUAGE TO CREATE HIS
of the words themselves depends on their meaning and sound. Tennyson, writing
in the Nineteenth Century, employed verbs such as “spake” and “changeth” to create an aura of the
medieval period. A native of Alabama may say “y’all” whereas
a person from New York may say “ youse guys.”
be either concrete or abstract. Concrete diction describes conditions
or qualities that are exact and particular, while abstract diction refers to qualities that are rarefied
and theoretical. Poems or prose works using specific and concrete words tend
to be visual, familiar and compelling. In contrast, works using general and abstract
words tend to be detached and cerebral, frequently dealing with universal questions and emotions. (Some of these notes are from S. Counsil at Spanish River H.S.)
Diction is defined as a writer’s choice of words.
The particular words an author uses will affect not only the message the audience (reader) receives, but the way in
which we interpret that idea.
– the dictionary definition; the literal meaning of the word as a representation of a person, place, thing, idea, or
– the implied meaning of a word. An author’s communication of connotative
meaning is usually made clear through context (the surroundings of a given word or image and its relationships to specific
elements in its verbal environment) (Sherbert).
Douglas Hunt gives us a clear explanation of the difference between denotation and connotation:
The denotation is the direct, specific meaning of a word or phrase: the
literal meaning. The connotation is everything else: the implications, the suggestions, the associations, the overtones.
When [William] Stafford [in his poem “Traveling Through the Dark”] says that his car “aimed its lowered parking lights,” the denotation is merely an
image of a car with its parking lights on, but aimed implies (for me, at least)
an intention on the car’s part, and lowered suggests the lowering of eyes. Combine this with the next line—“under the hood purred the steady engine”—and
you have language that denotes a car but connotes an animal.
classified into four levels:
(the following definitions are taken from “Glossary of Literary Terms: A-E”)
diction – a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language. It is
exacting in its adherence to the rules of grammar and uses complex vocabulary.
diction – still follows the rules of correct language usage, but is less “elevated.” It reflects the way most educated people speak.
diction – the plain language of everyday use. This often involves idiomatic
expressions, slang, contractions, and simple or common words.
diction – Poets sometimes use an elevated diction that is significantly different from the common speech and writing
of their time. These can be words that are chosen (or sometimes created) by the
poet because they have a special “poetic” quality – an ability to communicate a complex thought in a word
Note that words have both denotative and connotative meanings at all four levels of diction. The level used by an author to communicate his/her message will depend a great deal on the message to be
communicated, the intended audience, and the form of communication (i.e., formal speech/address, story with characters and
dialogue, or poetry).
(The following information is courtesy of Pat Sherbert.)
The connotations of words have great rhetorical value—for example in prompting the
emotional appeal of a discourse. Robert H. Thouless has ably demonstrated the
emotional value of connotations in his analysis of the diction in
two verses by John Keats:
In THE EVE OF ST. AGNES, Keats has written:
Full on this
casement shone the wintry moon,
warm gules on Madeline’s fair breast.
These are beautiful lines. Let us notice how much of their beauty follows
from the proper choice of emotionally colored words and how completely it is lost if these words are replaced by neutral ones. The words with strikingly emotional meanings are CASEMENT, GULES, MADELINE, FAIR,
and BREAST. CASEMENT means simply a kind of window with emotional and romantic
associations. GULES is the heraldic name for red, with the suggestion of romance,
which accompanies all heraldry. MADELINE is simply a girl’s name, but one
calling out favorable emotions absent from a relatively plain and straightforward name.
FAIR simply means, in objective fact, that her skin was white or uncolored—a necessary condition for the colors
of the window to show—but also fair implies warm emotional preference for an uncolored skin rather than one which is
yellow, purple, black, or any of the other colors which skin might be. BREAST
has also similar emotional meaning, and the aim of scientific description might have been equally well attained if it had
been replaced by such a neutral word as CHEST.
Let us now
try the experiment of keeping those two lines in a metrical form, but replacing all the emotionally colored words by neutral
ones, while making as few other changes as possible. We may write:
Full on this
window shone the wintry moon,
marks on Jane’s uncolored chest.
No one will doubt that all of its poetic value has been knocked out of the passage by these changes. Yet the lines still mean the same in external fact; they still have the same objective meaning. It is only the emotional meaning which has been destroyed.
Consider this example, in which H. L. Mencken in prose is seeking to influence our attitude
toward a certain kind of teacher:
Such idiots, despite the rise of “scientific” pedagogy, have not died out in the world. I believe that our schools are full of them, both in pantaloons and in skirts. There are fanatics who love and venerate spelling as a tom-cat loves and venerates catnip. There are grammatomaniacs; schoolmarms who would rather parse than eat; specialists in an objective case
that doesn’t exist in English; strange beings, otherwise sane and even intelligent and comely, who suffer under a split
infinitive as you or I would suffer under gastro-enteritis. There are geography
cranks, able to bound Mesopotamia and Baluchistan. There are zealots for long
division, experts in the multiplication tables, lunatic worshippers of the binomial theorem.
But the system has them in its grip. It combats their natural enthusiasm
diligently and mercilessly. It tries to convert them into mere technicians, clumsy
We cannot examine all the techniques that Mencken uses in his satirical writings, but we can note here the subtle way
in which he influences our reactions simply by his choice of words. A good deal
of the effect of this passage is produced by Mencken’s “namecalling.”
The “names” that Mencken used here are heavily freighted with emotional overtones—IDIOTS, FANATICS,
SCHOOLMARMS (one of Mencken’s favorite derogatory epithets), CRANKS, ZEALOTS, LUNATIC WORSHIPPERS. All of these words carry the discrediting connotation of extreme, irrational commitment to a cause—the
taint of “enthusiasm” that many critics ascribed to the evangelical sects in the eighteenth and nineteenth century
England. Where Mencken fails to find an emotional epithet to suit his purpose,
he invents one—GRAMMATOMANIACS. Most readers do not know what GASTRO-ENTERITIS
means; but they do not have to know—the word just sounds awful. Notice how Mencken, in the second sentence of this passage, indicates that he is talking about both men
and women teachers—“in pantaloons and in skirts.” PANTALOONS
was an especially clever choice. PANTS would have been the word that most of
us would have chosen as the counterpart of SKIRTS. But Mencken detected an extra
connotative value of the word PANTALOONS, suggesting to a modern audience something archaic, slightly feminine. Note too how Mencken uses a simile in the third sentence to deprecate the object of his satire, comparing
devotees of correct spelling to the lowly, back-alley TOM-CAT. One of the deadliest
words in the English language is the word MERE. Mencken uses this word with devastating
effectiveness at the end of this passage, where he begins to shift his ground attack, warning us that these “enthusiastic”
pedagogues are now in danger of being turned into dispassionate machines as a result of their exposure to “teachers’
college” bunkum. What is more chilling than to be called a “mere
relationship between diction and tone.
Diction is a tool an author uses to communicate his/her feelings about a subject.
Pat Sherbert defines tone as follows:
In a literary
work, tone is the attitude the author projects. That attitude is revealed through
his choice of details, through his diction, and through his emphasis and comments.
and attitude are frequently used in textbooks interchangeably (defined: tone
is attitude), they can differ….Tone only reflects attitude. The writer,
through his choice of devices such as diction and syntax (style), implies a tone; as a result, the reader infers an attitude.
Tone is a
musical metaphor for the writers’ relationships with readers that result from writers making two decisions: (1) how they will express their feelings about the subject, and (2) how they will place themselves socially,
intellectually, or morally with regard to their implied readers—as their superiors, looking down; as their inferiors,
looking up; or as their equals, addressing them eye-to-eye.
Tone as the
expression of feeling should not be confused with the description of feeling. Tone
expresses or implies the writer’s emotional state, the feeling about the subject that the writer desires to share; it
will often differ markedly from the feelings expressed by characters who appear in the writing. A writer, for example, can describe the cheerfulness of the airline flight attendants in a sarcastic tone,
the self-dramatizing gloom of a spoiled child in a scoffing tone, or the pompous pontifications of a political candidate in
a tone of good-natured joshing.
need not say what they are feeling; tone emerges as a quality of the whole utterance, whether spoken or written. An indignant speaker might say with deep sarcasm, “I’m delighted that you show such contempt
for my efforts. Nothing pleases me more than to find honesty where I might least
expect it.” The speaker does not need to say, “I’m indignant.” When Wordsworth says, “But yet I know, where’er I go,/ That there hath
passed away a glory from the earth,” his sense of loss can be heard without his having to say, “I’m sad.” It is reported that Mark Twain would never smile as he delivered popular speeches
that kept his audiences in stitches.
is the quality of voice that conveys feelings, whether they are stated directly or indirectly.
With variations of tone, we can express love or hate, happiness or grief, comradeship or contempt, compassion or loathing,
humor or seriousness, anger, indignation, outrage, or forgiveness. And these
tones are only a beginning. Writers usually present not only tone, but also a
mixture of tones: anger and pity, sorrow and hope, and so on….
of tone will depend on a precise and accurate understanding of the author’s attitude toward
(1) the subject
(2) the audience
In order to investigate tone and attitude, we use the acronym DIDS:
Diction: The purposeful selection of words for their denotative or connotative value.
Images: The words and phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses.
Details: Concrete words used to call up an image, sometimes called concrete imagery and not
to be confused with a sensory image; a referent.
Syntax: The author’s arrangement of sounds, phrases, and clauses that becomes a rhetorical
Tim Averill says, “tone is an end of rhetoric, whereas diction, imagery, selected details
and manipulated syntax are tangible means that can reveal an author’s tone.”
Averill breaks tone/attitude into the following categories, which he identifies as language we can use to describe tone:
lighthearted, hopeful, exuberant, enthusiastic, complimentary, confident, cheery, optimistic, loving, passionate, amused,
elated, sympathetic, compassionate, proud
Anger—angry, disgusted, outraged, accusing,
condemnatory, furious, wrathful, bitter, inflammatory, irritated, indignant, threatening.
contemptuous, sarcastic, cynical, critical, facetious, patronizing, satiric, condescending, sardonic, mock-heroic, bantering,
irreverent, mock-serious, taunting, insolent, pompous, ironic, flippant, grotesque
Sorrow/Fear/Worry—somber, elegiac, melancholic,
sad, disturbed, mournful, solemn, serious, apprehensive, concerned, hopeless, staid, resigned
formal, objective, incredulous, nostalgic, ceremonial, candid, shocked, reminiscent, restrained, clinical, baffled,
sentimental, detached, disbelieving, questioning, urgent, instructive, matter-of-fact, admonitory, learned, factual, didactic,
Averill’s three simple categories can provide a starting point for analyzing tone in
many works of literature, but author’s often use a combination of attitudes. You
may need a more comprehensive list of categories in order to adequately describe an author’s attitude in a specific
manner. Sherbert’s list is as follows:
explanatory, didactic, admonitory, condemnatory, indignant, puzzled, curious, guileless, thoughtless, innocent, frank,
sincere, questioning, uncertain, doubting, incredulous, critical, cynical, insinuating, persuading, coaxing, pleading, persuasive,
peaceful, satisfied, contented, happy, cheerful, pleasant, bright, joyful, playful, jubilant, elated, enraptured
worried, uneasy, troubled, disappointed, regretful, vexed, annoyed, bored, disgusted, miserable, cheerless, mournful,
sorrowful, sad, dismal, melancholy, plaintive, fretful, querulous, irritable, sore, sour, sulky, dismal, sullen, bitter, crushed,
nervous, hysterical, impulsive, impetuous, reckless, desperate, frantic, wild, fierce, serious, savage, enraged, angry,
hungry, greedy, jealous, insane, wistful
cordial, sociable, gracious, kindly, sympathetic, compassionate, forgiving, pitying, indulgent, tolerant, comforting,
soothing, tender, loving, caressing, solicitous, accommodating, approving, helpful, obliging, courteous, polite, confiding,
facetious, comic, ironic, satiric, amused, mocking, playful, humorous, uproarious
lively, eager, excited, earnest, energetic, vigorous, hearty, ardent, passionate, rapturous, ecstatic, feverish, exalted,
breathless, hasty, brisk, crisp, hopeful
inert, sluggish, languid, dispassionate, dull, colorless, indifferent, stoical, resigned, defeated, helpless, hopeless,
dry, monotonous, vacant, feeble, dreaming, bored, blasé, sophisticated
impressive, profound, proud, dignified, lofty, imperious, confident, egotistical, peremptory, bombastic, sententious,
arrogant, pompous, stiff, boastful, exultant, insolent, domineering, flippant, saucy, positive, resolute, haughty, condescending,
challenging, bold, defiant, contemptuous
of submission and timidity
meek, shy, humble, docile, ashamed, modest, timid, unpretentious, respectful, apologetic, devout, reverent, servile,
obsequious, groveling, contrite, obedient, willing, sycophantic, fawning, ingratiating, deprecatory, alarmed, fearful, terrified,
trembling, wondering, awed, astounded, shocked, uncomprehending
Exercises (taken from handout by Pat Sherbert)
A. Read the following poem.
Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
Naked and the Nude
For me, the naked and the nude
(By lexicographers construed
As synonyms that should express
The same deficiency of dress
Or shelter) stand as wide apart
As love from lies, or truth from art.
Lovers without reproach will gaze
On bodies naked and ablaze;
The hippocratic eye will see
In nakedness, anatomy;
And naked shines the Goddess when
She mounts her lion among men.
The nude are bold, the nude are sly
To hold each treasonable eye.
While draping by a showman’s trick
Their dishabille in rhetoric,
They grin a mock-religious grin
Of scorn at those of naked skin.
The naked, therefore, who compete
Against the nude may know defeat;
Yet when they both together tread
The briary pastures of the dead,
By Gorgons with long whips pursued,
How naked go the sometimes nude!
1. Circle the words: lexicographers, construed,
hippocratic, dishabille, Gorgons. What is the effect (connotative) of using this
2. What kind of language is used in lines 2-5?
For example, why is “deficiency” used instead of “lack”?
3. Explain the metaphor in line 15. (rhetoric
= clothing) Why the fancy word “dishabille” ? (French = undressed)
4. Explain the effect of Grave’s choice of deviant alternatives: brave for bold, clever for sly, clothing for draping, and smile for grin?
5. What is the connotative difference between “naked” and “nude”? What is the effect of the last line?
PURPOSE: Grave’s distinction between “naked” and “nude” does not account for
other uses of these words. How appropriate, for example, would be Grave’s
version of nude for the following: a pamphlet written for nudists, an advertisement
for a strip show, an article in ART NEWS on painting the human figure? Writer’s
purpose becomes a strong thesis for a paper, if you validate his purpose with the study of his word choice.
by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
1. What are the “diction” words in the poem?
(List them in the left column on the analysis form.)
2. Look up the denotative meanings of the “diction” words in the dictionary
and write them in the left column on the analysis form.
3. Write the connotative meanings of the “diction” words in the right column
of the analysis form.
4. Use one of the lists of tone/attitude words to help you decide Roethke’s attitude
and write 2-3 sentences in the space on the form which explain the speaker’s attitude.
5. Identify the speaker’s purpose and write it in the space on the form. Note that the purpose will often reflect the theme or message of the poem, and is often a comment on some
aspect of the human condition. State this purpose as a clear thesis for an essay
which would analyze the use of diction in the poem.
More on Tone:
a term designating the attitudes toward a subject and toward the audience implied in the literary work. In such a usage, a work may have a tone that is formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious,
ironic, condescending, or any of many possible attitudes. Almost all of the elements
of poetry go into indicating its tone: connotation, imagery, and metaphor; irony and understatement; rhythm, sentence construction,
is the speaker’s relationship to and his feelings about his subject. It might be objective, subjective, derogatory, humble, satirical, ironic, optimistic
or pessimistic. Many critics do not distinguish a difference between tone and
mood, but there is a subtle difference. A teacher who has a student notorious for not doing his homework may finally get angry
(mood) and ask:
“You want to explain what happened this time?” inquisitive, impatient
tell me- you lost your homework again!” sarcastic, angry
noted over the years that one of the most common questions on the essays on the AP exam will ask you to examine what the
speaker’s attitude is to a particular thing, usually another person or an event.
Knowing attitude and correctly defining it is crucial. Consider Johnson’s
attitude toward Soame Jenyns: belittling, derisive. He couldn’t care less
if Jenyns is humiliated. In fact, he revels in it. He “cannot resist the temptation.” He goes on
to paint Jenyns as the worst kind of fool. On the other hand, Stevenson also
thinks the Cat Bill is absurd, but because he is Governor of the Illinois, he cannot afford to run the risk of alienating
the very people he will have to work with later. His tone is gentle, Horatian,
“Come on fellas; you can’t be serious.”
to mood, which is the overall general atmosphere created by the setting, characters, and events and is an important
aspect of its style and might be described as:
a basic list of tone words courtesy of Mrs. Johnson:
1. accusatory- charging of wrong doing
2. apathetic- indifferent due to lack of energy
3. awe- solemn wonder
4. bitter- exhibiting strong animosity as a result
of pain or grief
5. cynical- questions the basic sincerity and
goodness of people
6. condescending- a feeling of superiority
7. callous- unfeeling, insensitive to feelings
studying, thinking, reflecting on an issue
9. critical- finding
10. choleric- hot-tempered, easily angered
11. contemptuous- showing or feeling that something is worthless or lacks respect
12. caustic- trenchant, mordant, intense use of sarcasm, stinging, biting
13. conventional- lacking spontaneity, originality and individuality
14. disdainful- scornful
15. didactic- author attempts to educate or instruct the reader, often with a touch of
16. derisive- ridiculing, mocking
17. earnest- intense, a sincere state of mind
18. gloomy- darkness, sadness, rejection
19. haughty- proud and vain to the point of arrogance
20. indignant- marked by anger aroused by injustice
21. intimate- very familiar
22. judgmental- authoritative and often having critical opinions
23. jovial- happy, sanguine
24. lyrical- expressing a poet’s inner feelings; emotional; full of images; song-like
25. matter-of-fact- accepting of conditions; not fanciful or emotional
26. mocking- treating with contempt or ridicule
27. morose- gloomy, sullen, surly, despondent
28. malicious- purposely hurtful
29. objective- an unbiased view-able to leave personal judgments aside
30. optimistic- hopeful, cheerful
31. obsequious- polite and obedient in order to gain something
32. patronizing- air of condescension
33. pejorative- belittling, denigrating
34. pessimistic- seeing the worst side of things; no hope
35. quizzical- odd, eccentric, amusing
36. ribald- offensive in speech or gesture (usually “R” rated)
37. ridiculing- slightly contemptuous banter; making fun of
38. erudite- learned, polished, scholarly
39. fanciful- using the imagination
40. forthright- directly frank without hesitation
41. reflective- illustrating innermost thoughts and emotions
42. sarcastic- sneering, caustic
43. sardonic-scornfully and bitterly sarcastic-humor that arises from rage
44. satiric- ridiculing to show weakness in order to make a point, reform
45. sincere- without deceit or pretense; genuine
46. solemn- deeply earnest, tending toward sad reflection
47. sanguine- optimistic, cheerful
48. whimsical- odd, strange, fantastic; fun
LOOK AT THESE QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ASKED IN THE LAST FEW YEARS AND SEE THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT WAYS
THAT THE TESTMAKERS HAVE USED TO ASK ABOUT ATTITUDE AND TONE:
how the author uses narrative voice and characterization to provide social commentary.”
how formal elements such as syntax, diction, and imagery reveal the speaker’s response to the death of
how the poet conveys not just a literal description of picking blackberries, but a deeper understanding
of the whole experience.”
the King’s thoughts and analyze how the diction, imagery, and syntax help to convey his state
the narrative techniques and other resources of language Olsen uses to characterize the mother and the mother’s attitudes
towards her daughter.”
includes many things such as literary devices, word order in a sentence, rhetorical questions, and how punctuation marks are
used. Normal English word order is firmly fixed in a subject-verb-object sequence. That order is so central to our communication that any change significantly alters meaning. “A dog bites a man” is not the same as “A man bites a dog.” Most poets follow normal word order, and many modern poets go out of their way to create ordinary, everyday
poets explore the many possibilities of syntax. In line 7 of Donne’s
“Batter My Heart,” he says,” Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend.” In prose, the sentence would read, “Reason, who is Your viceroy in me, should defend me.” But note that John Donne drops the “who is” thus making an appositive
instead of a relative clause. The resulting emphasis on the pronoun “me”
is appropriate to the personal-divine relationship that is the topic of the sonnet.
The alteration also meets the demand of the poem’s rhyme scheme.
speak of “word order,” we must ask ourselves questions such as: are the sentences long and drawn out or short
and choppy? If they are long and drawn out, what is the purpose? If they are short and choppy, what is the purpose?
style is indicated by his choice of word and by the way he puts those words together.
There are four forms:
DECLARATIVE: I need the sugar.
INTERROGATIVE: Could you please pass the sugar?
EXCLAMATORY: I told you to pass the sugar!!
Pass the sugar.
read a soliloquy from Henry IV, Part II, where he continually uses rhetorical questions asking why sleep has been denied
him. He also uses apostrophe to speak directly to sleep, and he allegorizes sleep
as a cruel being that bestows itself on the lowly and denies itself to a king.
might a reader draw about a speaker who asks so many rhetorical questions? When
we discuss rhetorical questions, we refer to those questions, usually philosophical, which do not require an answer. We may be speaking to God or just asking ourselves one of those imponderables that
is speculative and not really meant to be answered. “Why was I put on earth?” “What is the meaning of life?” “How
could God look on misery and do nothing?”
syntax can be used to imitate sound or action; short choppy sentences have been used on past AP exams to imitate horse hooves
on a cobbled street. In Blake’s “Tyger,” the constant questions
and staccato rhythm of one of the stanzas is intended to resemble a hammer hitting a blacksmith’s anvil.
can also be used to indicate a frantic, jerky struggle such as the instance in Faulkner’s “The Bear.” Long sentences that go on for several lines can also indicate oppression, a heaviness
in the atmosphere. A good example of this occurs in the opening paragraph of
Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
“A THRONG OF BEARDED MEN, in sad-colored garments and gray,
steeple crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden
edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes.”
of parallel structure in this one sentence lends an air of authority, oppression, and weight to the opening. We are right there with Hester coming out of the jail. The
austere nature of life in Boston at that time, the sad-colors, gray steeples, hooded women, iron spikes, etc add to the heaviness
of the scene. One sentence and the entire weight of Pilgrim authority comes down
on not only Hester, but on us too.
simplest form of parallelism is the repetition of the same words and phrases, seen in William Blake’s “The Lamb.” A major
quality of parallelism is the packing of words (the economy and compression of poetry), for by using a parallel structure,
the poet makes a single word or phrase function a number of times with no need for repetition.
the last two lines of Donne’s “Batter My Heart:”
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me
called a chiasmus- a rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures. “enthrall” (verb) “free” (adjective)
“chaste” (adjective) “ravish” (verb)
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms by Chris Baldick provides a more extensive description:
chiasmus [ky-AZ-mus] (plural -mi), a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the
first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same words ("Pleasure's
a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure" --Byron) or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas . . .
. The figure is especially common in 18th century English poetry, but is also found in prose of all periods. It is named
after the Greek letter chi (x), indicating a "criss-cross" arrangement of terms. Adjective: chiastic.
It is a
quite common means of creating emphasis. You might also remember the way that
Richard Eberhart used chiasmus in “The Groundhog.” “I
saw a groundhog lying dead/ Dead lay he…” What is accomplished by the juxtaposition of the two words “dead?” It must be to draw our attention to how shocked the speaker was at stumbling upon
this thing. It’s done for the effect.
Here’s another example: “I had the chianti; then the chianti
more examples of chiasmus:
great secret of a successful marriage
is to treat all disasters as incidents
and none of the incidents as disasters.”
-- Sir Harold Nicolson, English historian & diplomat,
is poetry that is seen rather than felt,
and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
(An example of double chiasmus)
-- Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist & Renaissance Man,
sinews of war are not gold, but good soldiers;
for gold alone will not procure good soldiers,
but good soldiers will
always procure gold.”
-- Niccolò Machiavelli, Florentine
statesman & political theorist,
to learn something about everything
and everything about something.”
-- T. H. Huxley, English biologist,.
Aldous Huxley’s father
must begin to love in order
that we may not fall ill,
and we must fall ill if,
in consequence of frustration,
Freud, Austrian physician & founder
all readers become leaders.
But all leaders must be readers.”
-- Harry Truman, 33rd U. S. President,
the punctuation of the sentence may be significant in terms of style. To slow
the reading of a work in which the topic is sad or contemplative, an author might employ numerous dashes or commas. Or commas might be employed to string together ideas in order to convey a sense of rapidity. In a work of literature in which the author wishes to convey the idea of happiness or quickness, he might
omit punctuation and choose words which trip lightly and quickly over the tongue.
Davenant wrote a version of Macbeth’s famous “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech.
I should say he had the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare. Of course, Shakespeare
was not the revered figure that he is today. In any case, Shakespeare’s
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
rewrote it to read this way:
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this stealing pace from day to day
wanted to convey the hopelessness, bitterness, and despair Macbeth felt at the end of his life. His life was creeping along in a petty or miserable pace, dragging slowly to his end. The commas emphasize this; they slow the reader down, so that his reading drags as much as Macbeth feels
his life does. On the other hand, Davenant wanted to quicken the “stealing
pace” so he eliminated the commas. Of course, Davenant’s version
is not nearly as adept as Shakespeare’s at conveying the utter futility of Macbeth’s struggles.
Antithesis is a balancing or contrasting of one term against another. For example: “Fair is foul and foul is fair” from Macbeth or “Man proposes, God
disposes” from Alexander Pope.
Litotes is an understatement and is achieved by saying the opposite of what one means
or by making an affirmation by stating the fact in the negative. It is the opposite
of hyperbole. An example is Little John in Robin Hood being a large man or passing
a fabulously expensive house and calling it a cottage or shack. The multi-millionaires
in Newport, Rhode Island always called their fabulous summer homes their “cottages.” Some cottage with a 100 rooms!
REMEMBER: SYNTAX IS DICTATED BY TWO THINGS: EMOTION AND ACTION!!!
fuels short sentences. So
do fear, tension, excitement, eagerness, mystery, etc. Short sentences can also be used for emphasis.
fuels longer, more languid sentences. So do contemplation, rational
thought, big plans, flattery, persuasion, ennui, etc.
Sentences that include many parallel constructions can
also be used to create chaos, confusion, fear, etc. The details can rise to a
crescendo that can deafen the reader. Consider the syntax we discussed in the
market of “Araby” or the chaos in the child’s mind in “The Rocking-Horse Winner.”
Invisible Man, Tim’s language is common and easily accessible; however, the sentence structures are determined
by what has happened to him at the time. Ellison knows that we all think in a
mixture of short and long sentences. Life is messy, complicated. So is language.
of sentences would you use if you were to describe the following:
1. a brawl
2. the scene in the cafeteria
3. a day at PVHS
4. a visit to the mall on Christmas Eve
5. waiting to speak to the principal
6. deciding where to go to college
7. writing a secret admirer love note
8. explaining to your parents why you broke curfew
9. talking a police officer out of giving you a ticket
10. convincing your friends to go where you want to go
More on Syntax (from B. McDaniel)
Syntax is the arrangement of words in meaningful patterns. The arrangements
normally follow the accepted rules of grammar usage (the patterns of grammar). We
generally don’t need to pay much attention to syntax in conversations and writing because following the rules is so
basic to the use of language that we have a breakdown in communication if the patterns of grammar are not observed correctly,
thus resulting in a “what did you say?” response. However, knowledge
of how syntax works can help us understand how it affects communication. We need to examine the concept of syntax in two ways:
1) Analyzing our own use of syntax to correct
or improve our writing.
2) Analyzing an author’s use of syntax to achieve a particular effect.
Words are symbols of ideas, but they do not begin to “say” anything until we put them together. Sentences, which are syntactical units composed
by words, “say” something, partly because of the lexical content (the meaning) of the words and partly because
of the grammatical forms that govern words pu together in patterns. If a basic
grammatical competence has been established, you are ready to develop the rhetorical competence to compose effective sentences. Rhetorical competence plays its part in the writing process when there are choices
to be made from among two or more grammatical possibilities. Stylistic variations
in the syntax of the sentence cannot ignore the grammar of the language. Any
changes you make must be grammatical (Cohen).
Analyzing our own use of syntax is probably the more difficult of these tasks.
As we learn language when we are very small, we internalize the rules of grammar.
For example, we learn that saying “Me up, Mama” is more likely to get us held by mother than “Up,
Mama, me.” By the time a student is in high school, s/he has been
speaking English for quite a number of years, and is quite effective at basic communication tasks.
problems surface when we begin formal writing tasks and a teacher tells us we have “misplaced modifiers” or “dangling
modifiers” or that our sentence structure isn’t “parallel.”
Many students have no idea what these terms mean, and therefore have difficulty identifying these problems in their
own writing. These messages generally mean that the student needs to look closely
at the way s/he has put together the words in a sentence to evaluate how clearly the meaning is being communicated.
major cause of scrambled syntax is a bad connection between the beginning and ending of a sentence—an ending that seems
to have forgot how it began. For instance, in the sentence, “Depending
on how the vote goes will determine if our side wins,” if we respect the beginning, our result will go along these lines: “Depending on how the vote goes, our side may win.” If we respect the
ending, the result will probably be: “The vote will determine whether our
side wins.” Consider this sentence:
“To a conscientious student is a desire to get the assignment done,” which we might revise as “To
a conscientious student, getting the assignment done is very important” or “A conscientious student always wants
to get the assignment done.” (Sherbert)
the following sentence: The dog bit the
man. The meaning is clear; the dog performed the action of biting and the
man received that action. Now add in these words:
Ferocious, uniformed, baring its teeth, delivering the daily mail. The first two words are easily incorporated into the sentence:
The ferocious dog bit the uniformed man.
But the two phrases can be easily inserted in places that confuse the meaning of the sentence:
Delivering the daily mail, the dog bit the man.
The dog bit the man baring its teeth.
of these are examples of misplaced modifiers.
The first example says that the dog was the one who was delivering the daily mail.
The second example says that the man was baring his teeth. These errors
are easily corrected, as long as the student is thinking as s/he reads what s/he has written and paying attention to the structure
and meaning of his/her sentences.
Analyzing syntax in literature
When we examine an author’s use of syntax in order to achieve a particular effect in his/her
writing, we are evaluating tangible devices which the author may have manipulated to create an emotional or intellectual effect. How the author organizes the words creates meaning and effect. Analyzing the way in which the meaning has been communicated to us and the effect it has on us allows us
to more fully appreciate the author’s work in crafting that piece of literature.
Examining the author’s choices in his/her arrangement of words allows us to better understand the author’s
message. Sentence length and patterns—rhythm, parallelism, word order--all contribute to the emotional effects of a
literary passage. They create connections between the words, which creates meaning.
What do you look for? The following are common techniques
for manipulating syntax:
6. unusual (inverted) or unexpected word order. Poets in particular are fond of inverting word order to make it sound
“poetic”, rather than just ordinary speech. Look at the opening line
of Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”: “Whose
woods these are I think I know.” Frost has avoided conventional word order
by reversing the two units of four words (I think I know whose woods these are).
7. sentence length (especially variations in the length of sentences)
8. punctuation. Where do commas, semi-colons, and periods fall within the sentence?
What is the relationship between punctuation and stanzas in a poem?
9. perspective (point of view)
structure (creates balance and emphasis—“I came, I saw, I conquered.”)
12. use of similar
words (for example, a series of sentences or lines of poetry beginning with participles—running, jumping, sliding—give
a sense of continuous motion)
13. a shift
in word order (generally signals an important idea)
14. word order that imitates the action the words describe (mimetic syntax). Notice
how E.E. Cummings uses mimetic syntax in this poem:
Me Up At Does
Me up at does
out of the floor
a poisoned mouse
still who alive
is asking What
have I done that
You wouldn’t have
order to make sense of this poem, we must first rearrange it in conventional syntax.
We can begin with the subject of the sentence in something like the following manner:
“A poisoned mouse, who, still alive, is asking what have I done that you wouldn’t have, does quietly stare
out of the floor up at me.” By inverting and fracturing syntax the way
he does, Cummings surprises us into looking more closely not only at his language, but also at the experience it conveys. The emotional and intellectual experience in reading Cummings’ original poem
and our revision differ significantly. Cummings’ redistribution of words
on the page and his unusual syntactic arrangement compel us to look more deliberately at his subject. We are made to see much more clearly the mouse’s point of view.
Instead of a speaker looking down at a mouse, Cummings creates a perspective in which the dying mouse is looking up
at his executioner. The reversal of perspective is accentuated by the reversal
of grammatical subject and predicate, the dispersal of phrases in short poetic lines, each of which focuses on one small aspect
of the experience. (Sherbert)
Cohen breaks down evaluation of writing style into two main sections: choice of diction and arrangements of words in sentences. He
gives the following list of items for examining diction and syntax:
Kinds of diction
1. General or specific
2. Abstract or concrete
3. Formal or informal
Latinate (usually polysyllabic) or Anglo-Saxon (usually monosyllabic)
5. Common words or jargon
6. Referential (denotative) or emotive (connotative)
Length of sentences (measured in number of words)
Kinds of sentences
1. Grammatical: simple, compound, complex,
2. Rhetorical: loose, periodic, balanced,
3. Functional: statement, question, command,
Variety of sentence patterns
2. Sentence openers
3. Method and location of expansion
Means of articulating sentences (coherence devices)
Use of figures of speech
1. Length (measured in number of words and number of sentences)
2. Kind of movement or development in paragraphs
3. Use of transitional devices
Syntactical patterns such
as words organized around the mental associations of the poem’s speaker, rhetorical persuasiveness which suggest a carefully
worded argument to persuade the audience, syntax designed for poetic smoothness or abruptness—all are intended to be
expressive. “They intensify our experience in reading poetry and prose;
they alert us to meanings that go beyond individual words and sentences to include the intellectual and emotional implications
of unusual verbal arrangements” (Sherbert).
Syntax Exercises (taken from handout by Pat
A. Read the following poem, then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
The Man He Killed
he and I but met
some old ancient inn,
should have sat us down to wet
many a napperkin!
ranged as infantry,
staring face to face,
shot him as he at me,
killed him in his place.
shot him dead because—
he was my foe,
so: my foe of course he was;
clear enough; although
thought he’d ‘list, perhaps,
out of work—had sold his traps—
other reason why.
quaint and curious war is!
shoot a fellow down
treat if met where any bar is,
help to half-a-crown.
1. The first two stanzas are each a single sentence. Explain their logical
and syntactical relationship.
2. Unlike the smooth unbroken sentences in the first two stanzas, we find breaks in the syntax (indicated by dashes) in
the next two stanzas. After reading the stanzas aloud, explain what the breaks
suggest about the speaker’s state of mind.
3. Does the speaker’s fluent syntax in the last stanza suggest that he has worked through the state of mind you
found evident in stanzas three and four? Explain.
B. Read the following poem and answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
The Silken Tent
is as in a field a silken tent
midday when a sunny summer breeze
dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
that on guys it gently sways at ease,
its supporting central cedar pole,
is its pinnacle to heavenward
signifies the sureness of the soul,
to owe naught to any single cord,
strictly held by none, is loosely bound
countless silken ties of love and thought
everything on earth the compass round,
only by one’s going slightly taut
the capriciousness of summer air
the slightest bondage made aware.
1) Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this sonnet is that it is only a single sentence. Go through the poem again, attending to the way the sentence develops.
Account for all the conjunctions: SO (line 4), AND (line 5), BUT (line
9), AND (line 12).
2) How do these conjunctions help us follow the sentence?
the conjunctions help us to understand the speaker’s attitude?
DEVICES OF SOUND:
to inject language with music so that the sound will reinforce the meaning. The
poet achieves musical quality in two ways: by choice and arrangement of accents. The first essential element is repetition. The poet repeats certain sounds in certain combinations and arrangements. Poets may repeat any unit of sound from the smallest to the largest.
They may repeat individual vowel and consonant sounds, whole syllables, words, phrases, lines or groups of lines to
serve several purposes:
1. please the ear
2. emphasize the words in which repetition occurs
3. give structure to the poem
4. imitate an action
include: alliteration, assonance, or consonance (the repetition of final consonant sounds: first and last, odds
and ends, short and sweet are examples) Remember: alliteration can be euphonic or cacophonous. If it is euphonious, the vowel sounds dominate to create a pleasing, soothing effect. If it is cacophonous alliteration, the consonant sounds dominate creating tension, drama, suspense, mystery,
fear. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds but the dissimilarity of the
succeeding consonant sounds: slim, slip, thing, silvamoonlake.
also a device of sound: this includes end rhyme (rhyming words at the end of lines) and internal rhyme
(rhyming words are within the line.) Sound devices also include refrains (repeating
whole words, phrases, lines or groups of lines). Masculine rhyme (occurs
when one syllable of a word rhymes with another word- bend and send, bright and light) and Feminine rhyme (occurs when
the last two syllables of a word rhyme with another word- lawful and awful, lighting and fighting) are also devices of sound. A refrain is the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals in
a poem usually at the end of a stanza. The refrain often takes the form of a
of sound also include rhythm and meter. A brief review of metrics will help:
3 feet- trimeter
4 feet- tetrameter
5 feet- pentameter
foot- truth 6 feet- hexameter
7 feet- heptameter
8 feet- octameter
is a pause or interruption of a line of poetry. For example:
“Ah, what avails the sceptred race”
is a caesura; you are intended to pause (possibly to reflect). Caesura can also
occur in the middle of a line; it’s not just at the beginning. You mark
it with 2 parallel lines right above it, and it does not affect the scansion.
can reinforce the meaning by controlling the speed and the movement of lines by the choice and use of meter. The witches speak in trochaic in Macbeth when everyone else uses primarily iambic. This creates fear and discomfort in the viewer of the play because the rhythm feels off, different from
the rest. It acts on our subliminal minds.
and sound cooperate to produce the music of poetry. Sounds reinforce the meaning
of the poem and intensify the communication. The poet can choose words whose
sound in some degree suggests their meaning: ONOMATOPOEIA.
like what it means: hiss, snap, bang) The usefulness of this device is limited
because it can only be used where the poet is describing a sound.
Sibilance is another device of sound. It is the repetition of the letter ”s.” Sibilance can either be euphonious or cacophonous.
It depends on the context. The softness of the repetition of an “s”
sound is likely to be used to sweeten, to make the tone gentler. But this is
not a hard and fast rule. Consider the poem by Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et
Decorum Est.” The “shells dropping softly behind….”
Or “Gas. GAS!” turns this rule on its head. How ominous is the sound of poison gas as it is released quite softly from its canister. So judge this particular device by what you perceive to be the writer’s purpose.
A theme is a lesson we are supposed to learn from reading a work of literature. Certainly, there will always be several themes in any work of prose or poetry. What is the writer
trying to tell us? What does he want us to know?
What does he want us to feel? What moral imperative are we to learn and profit from as a reward for reading the work? Themes should not be stated as “You should do this or that,”
or “Man should not do this or that”. We should infer
that we “should” conduct ourselves a certain way. For example: In
Oedipus Rex, one of the themes is that it is not the province of man to decide his own fate. We infer that we should accept our fates philosophically and resign ourselves to the inevitable. That may not be a modern concept; people today might like to think that they control
their own destinies; however, this is one of Sophocles’ intended themes in ancient Greece. LEARN TO THINK LIKE THEY
WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT STATE THEMES IN CLICHED TERMS!!
What goes around comes around
Man has to roll with the punches
He took the road less traveled
of a Salesman, Miller rails against the industrialization of America, a system that grinds up men like Willy and spits
them out, usually a few weeks before their pensions kick in. Of course, he is
also talking about how parents often don’t see their children realistically and always harbor hopes even in the face
of utter futility. Another theme explored here is that it is important
to adapt to change. Willy’s anachronistic views aid in his downfall. There are several themes at work here. A
great work of literature always has more than one. Your job is to list them
and then find the workable one for the question when it asks you how literary devices, diction, syntax, etc. contribute to
in literature are one word ideas that run throughout: revenge, jealousy,
lust, power, etc. are MOTIFS NOT THEMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In Hamlet, the unweeded garden that grows rank and foul is a motif. A theme might be that often we are placed in untenable positions and expected to act
as pawns in a game greater than we could know. In Oedipus Rex, blindness
and purblindness are motifs. But Sophocles is also saying that great men are made to suffer greatly and through
their suffering achieve salvation. That’s one of the themes.
THEMES REQUIRE A VERB!!!
studied literary devices from the beginning of the year. The most important thing
to remember is that each is chosen for a specific purpose. Your job is not only
to identify the device but also to uncover the reason for the employment of the device.
Identification without analysis really serves no purpose.
So ask yourself: why did
Andrew Marvell use aedenic imagery in “To His Coy Mistress?” How
did the Duke convey his tone of voice in “My Last Duchess?” How did
Tennyson use synecdoche in “Ulysses?”
devices contribute significantly to the establishment of tone, mood, and themes. You
will be frequently asked to consider how they contribute to the theme of a work.
Some review: Do you remember these?
18 dramatic monologue
20. hubris, hamartia, catharsis
7. stream of consciousness
23. satire- Juvenalian, Horatian
26. rhetorical question
15. euphony and cacophony
some effort you can remember these and more. You then can call on them to ace
ONE MORE TIME- DON’T JUST SAY THAT SOMETHING IS AN EXAMPLE OF ALLITERATION OR THE POET MAKES A BIBLICAL ALLUSION HERE. YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF: WHAT IS THIS DOING HERE?
HOW DOES IT FUNCTION? YOU MUST ADDRESS YOURSELF TO ITS PURPOSE NOT JUST
you recall, allusions are references to the Bible, mythology or historical events. A
writer can also allude to another work (a line in a poem, a character from another novel, etc). Familiarize yourself with your Biblical glossary and your mythological glossary. Know the names of the gods in Greek mythology, the Norns of Norse mythology (for Macbeth’s witches)
and some basic Old and New Testament names such as:
14. Ark of the Covenant 27. Exodus
15. Tower of Babel
28. Four Horsemen
16. Crown of Thorns
of the Apocalypse
4. Pontius Pilate 17. David and Goliath
29. Holy Grail
5. Cain and Abel 18. Day of Judgment 30.
19. Prodigal Son
7. John the Baptist 20. Ruth
8. Jonah-Whale 21. Sermon on the Mount
22. Seven Deadly Sins
23. Sodom and Gomorrah
11. Mary Magdalene 24. Talmud
12. Mount of
Olives 25. Thirty Pieces of Silver
26. Wailing Wall
make sure you are familiar with at least these names:
1. Zeus (Jupiter)
2. Hera (Juno)
4. Aphrodite (Venus)
5. Hermes (Mercury)
6. Artemis (Diana)
7. Athena (Minerva)
8. Poseidon (Neptune)
9. Ares (Mars)
10. Hades (Vulcan)
11. Delphic oracle
Clytemnestra, Orestes, Electra
(Ulysses) Penelope, Telemachus, Circe
14. Medea, Jason
and the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts
15. Medusa, Gorgon
(mentioned frequently in Hamlet)
17. Mount Olympus
it might help to know:
and causes of World War I, terms like “shell shock” “ gas masks”
Remember “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen? The vivid description
of someone dying of poison gas? Know how the signing of the Treaty of Versailles
really set up the rise of Hitler. Do you know about the League of Nations?
War II, know such terms as “blitzkrieg,” “bomb shelter,” “Holocaust,” “genocide,” “Iron Curtain.” Also know the terms “gulag,” “de-Stalinization,”
of the Bulge,” “D-Day,” “kamikaze.”
know why the Irish Catholics and Protestants have been fighting in Northern Ireland for centuries? Do you know what the Potato Famine was? Do you know when the
French Revolution occurred? Do you know when the Magna Carta was signed and by
whom? Do you know who Martin Luther was and what he did? Do you know what conditions existed on slave ships? Do you
know when the Russian October revolution occurred? Do you know what happened to the czar and his family? Do you know when the Cultural Revolution in China took place? Do
you know when Mao took his long walk? Do you know what the de-militarized zone
in Korea is all about? Do you know what apartheid was and when it ended and in
what country? Do you know who Pinochet and Juan Peron were? Do you know who Hirohito was? Do you know about food rationing
in England after WWII?
are basic facts that seniors in high school should have at their fingertips and knowing this information gives you such an
advantage going into the AP test and going on to college. So if you don’t
know the answers to these questions, do something about it! GET MOVING!
want to know how a poem looks. What was the purpose of ending the lines in “Ogun”
in mid-word? Are the sentences long and then short? Are they imitating an action the imitation of the hammer hitting the anvil in “Tyger” or the
pounding of Indian drums in Longfellow’s “Hiawatha?” Are they
indicating an object by the shape of the poem? Do the sentences run over the
ends of lines (enjambment)? If they do, is the enjambment natural or does
the line break come at an awkward place? If the poet chooses a line length that
clashes with his sentence length, he has decided to draw attention to one or the other; why?
line sound like a whole, or does the line naturally divide into halves? (hemistichs)
has this to say: “A poem may be cast in one of three broad forms: continuous
form, stanzaic form, and fixed form. The continuous form has lines that
follow each other without formal grouping, the only breaks being dictated by units of meaning, as paragraphs are in prose. (Examples include “My Last Duchess” or “Ulysses.”) The
stanzaic form is written in a series of stanzas having the same number of lines, usually the same metrical pattern
and often an identical rhyme scheme. In the fixed form, a traditional
pattern applies to the whole poem.” Examples of this include English and
Italian sonnets, a villanelle like “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” where there is a refrain and a fixed
can also be found in the rhythm and meter of a poem. Review this section in under
devices of sound. Also, usually when the AP examiners ask for movement,
it is fairly obvious what the poet was going for. Short staccato lines build
tension, mystery, suspense, fear. Long flowing lines are more seductive; they
build in tranquility, peace, love, nostalgia. Allow yourself to be caught up in the rhythm and movement of a poem. Let it wash over you. Use your imaginations.
style is that which is unique and particular to him. Everything contributes to
it: the way Marvell uses literary devices, the bitterness of Plath’s tone in “Lady Lazarus,” Shakepeare’s
wit and use of irony and parody in “My Mistress’s Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun,” Housman’s gentle mockery in “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff,” Arthur Miller’s anger
at the effects of industrialization in Death of A Salesman, Camus’
use of existential principles in The Stranger, Sartre’s unique concept of hell in No Exit. All of the
life experiences that the writers bring, their blend of humor, use of techniques such as reductio ad absurdum, their use of
invective, their indignation at an unjust world, all of these things and a great deal more factor into a person’s style. Also consider how diction is used, how the types of sentences are constructed. Does the writer employ terse language; is he known for his economy of words? How does he employ language to suggest the true nature of his characters? What does he say that you wouldn’t say ordinarily? How
does he suggest through language what kind of interior life the character has? How
do you know what the character is thinking even when he doesn’t say things straight out?
For example, Shakespeare chose, through diction, to suggest Lady Macbeth thought of herself as queen already when she
called on the devil to “unsex” her and fill her from “crown to toe top full of direst cruelty.” Now you and I would say “head to toe,” but not Lady Macbeth. Of course, the crown of your body is the head anyway, but Shakespeare is suggesting that this woman is
so ambitious and ruthless that she sees herself on the throne long before the murder of Duncan, in fact from the moment she
hears of the witches’ prophecies.
style of a writer is a combination of everything in this guide: his diction, tone, point of view, his use of literary devices, his use of satire, the movement
of his prose or poetry, his devices of sound, etc. ALL OF IT COMBINED
MAKE UP STYLE. So if you are asked to consider a person’s style,
you are asked to consider what makes this writing unique. The techniques the
writer uses are always most particular to him.
Style refers not only to the vocabulary a writer uses (simple or multisyllabic) but also
to the general length of sentences. Are they short and terse? Or complex, containing many clauses and subordinate ideas?
beginning of the twentieth century, realistic novelists made a concerted effort to move away from complex, complicated sentences
toward a more colloquial, casual style, closer to what “real, plain people” would use in everyday conversation. This shift away from formal language reflected a change in ideas of “good style.”
identify whether the writer is using formal or informal language (diction) by using a few simple, mechanical devices. In Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, Edward Corbett suggests
1. Choose one long paragraph and count the words in each sentence. What is
the shortest sentence? The longest? What’s
the average number of words in a sentence?
2. In the same paragraph, count the number of nouns and verbs which have three or more syllables.
3. How many nouns in the paragraph refer to concrete things (people, landscape, animals, clothing, food, etc) and how
many refer to abstract ideas?
4. How many verbs in the passage describe the physical activity (run, jump, climb, blush) and how many describe the mental
activity (worry, anticipate, rejoice?)
exercises can help you begin to evaluate whether the author’s style is “plain” (short, common words, simple
sentences) or more complex and ornamental.
three passages of dialogue from three different characters and compare them, using the above exercise. Do all these characters talk alike? (This is a very common
flaw—even in the work of great writers.) Or do their patterns of speech
reflect the fact that they have different backgrounds, different jobs, different lives?
POINT OF VIEW:
of view is the perspective from which a narrative or a body of information is conveyed.
A writer may desire to create an impersonal or personal relationship with the reader.
To remain impersonal, he generally selects an impersonal pronoun (one, anyone, someone, everyone, many, etc.) thereby
establishing his point of view. First person point of view generally creates
a close relationship between the writer and his reader. Third person point of
view offers objectivity since the narrator is an observer and not personally involved in the action.
PERSON CENTRAL: intimate, narrator is a major participant-
this view gives a very immediate perspective. First person allows you to hear
a character’s most private thoughts- but in exchange, you can only see what happens within the character’s line
of sight, and you can only know those facts that the character herself is aware of.
FIRST PERSON PERIPHERAL: intimate, narrator
is a minor participant
FIRST PERSON PLURAL: intimate, narrators
are group participants
PERSON: (“You walk down the street and open the door….”)
is uncommon, generally used only in experimental works. Like first person point
of view, second person keeps the reader intimately involved with the story, and brings a sense of immediacy far beyond what
first person can produce. But second person also tends to limit the writer to
the present tense, cutting off any reflection on the past.
PERSON OMNISCIENT: subjective, all knowing, editorializing,
impartial. This was the most popular until the nineteenth century—puts the writer in the place of God. He can see and explain everything. He can describe both great
events in the universe and the thoughts that occupy the most private recesses of a character’s soul. The omniscient point of view often—although not always—is the author’s point of view
as well; it can allow the writer to moralize or record his own personal ideas about
the events of the book. In Victorian times, the omniscient point of view allowed
the writer to address the reader directly: “Gentle reader, what depths of guilt must a woman suffer!”
PERSON LIMITED OMNISCIENT: subjective, sees into one
character only. This tells the story from the viewpoint of one particular character,
delving into the character’s mind, but using third person pronouns (he or she) rather than the first person
pronouns. This perspective allows the writer to gain a little bit of distance
from the story, but still limits the writer those events that the viewpoint character can actually see and hear.
PERSON OBJECTIVE: sees into characters’ minds but does
not judge them. It tells the story from a removed, distant perspective. The narrator can see everything that is happening as though he were hovering in space
above the scene, but he can’t look into the heart or mind of any character. The
writer who uses third person objective gains a sort of scientific, dispassionate perspective but loses the ability to tell
us what the characters are thinking or feeling; we have to deduce this from the
character’s actions and expressions. Third person objective is the filmmaker’s
point of view.
PERSON MULTIPLE: allows the writer to use the viewpoints of
several different characters, jumping from “inside” of one character to the “inside” of another to
gain multiple perspectives.
OF CONSCIOUSNESS: dramatic or interior monologue exists in
the present tense and consists of the procession of thoughts passing through the mind.
It is often random and provides an intimate knowledge of the subject.
a narrator brings his own experiences to his narrative and might be naïve, innocent, biased, or even unreliable. The choice of a particular point of view allows an author to present or withhold evidence, provide intimacy
or distance, and allow subjectivity or objectivity.
of previous exams reveals a preponderance of satire. So far we have seen several
Canterbury Tales: the Prologue is a masterpiece of satire.
The hypocrisies of the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar and so many others are brilliantly portrayed. But think how Chaucer chose to expose them; he did not use invective and cruelly offer them up for ridicule. On the contrary, he gently exposed them, appearing to agree with their views and then
in one or two lines, he allows us to see the truth. This is Horatian satire at
its best. His “Wife of Bath’s Tale” offers us an unusual look
into Arthurian romances tempered by the fact that the woman who tells this story of what women want most was herself abused.
Its poignancy does not negate the satire.
New World : Huxley
offers us a frightening but funny glimpse into a possible dystopic future where drug use is rampant, promiscuity is
the accepted norm and mores of our society are scorned. His characters mouth
meaningless hypnopaedic statements and have no original thoughts. They entertain themselves with games that appeal strictly
to the senses. Intellectual life is dead or at least barely surviving on the
Modest Proposal” : Jonathan Swift brilliantly hands us an Ireland where the only hope for salvation is through the
ingestion of babies by the affluent English.
funny, but at the same time, he is shaking us out of our complacency, making us take a hard look at our indifference to the
suffering of the poor.
Johnson on Soame Jenyns: If you want to see Juvenalian satire, this is the one to read.
Everything is here: the pompous posturings of a pseudo-intellectual Jenyns whose ludicrous ideas and whose very persona
are skewered by Johnson. This is the classic example of reductio ad absurdum. He takes immeasurable delight in making Jenyns’ ideas and Jenyns himself look
Adlai Stevenson and his “Cat Bill:” This is Horatian satire at its best; it’s gentle, teasing, and yet,
it is still eloquent and very effective. There must have been more than one red
face in the Legislature when this veto came back. It’s a wake-up call;
let’s stop wasting our time on frivolous legislation and get back to the real work at hand.
ALL SATIRE REMEMBER:
1. What institution, idea, social injustice, person is being mocked?
2. What kind of tone does it have? If it is harsh, sardonic, it is JUVENALIAN. If it is gentle, teasing, it is HORATIAN.
3. SHOW ME THE FUNNY!!!!!! DON’T LEAVE YOUR SENSE OF
HUMOR AT HOME!!!! Pick out those parts that make you
chuckle: Lenina mouthing “A gramme is better than a damn!” or “Orgy porgy!!!” Stevenson’s “feline delinquents” etc.
4. Does the writer use reductio ad absurdum? How is hyperbole
5. Is this a burlesque? A lampoon?
6. Does the writer use invective?
7. How is the argument presented? What does
the writer do first?
REMEMBER: SATIRE NEEDS A TARGET!
several different classifications of irony:
1. Verbal Irony:
this occurs when the speaker’s meaning is far from the usual meaning of the words or quite the opposite. When a student says, “Oh, I just love to take Mr. Gleichmann’s make-up
exams” chances are that statement is quite the opposite of what he meant! When
an ironic statement is infused with bitterness or mockery, it might be called sarcasm.
2. Irony of Situation: this occurs when the outcome
expected turns out to be the opposite.
3. Dramatic Irony: this occurs when a character,
whose knowledge is limited, says, does, or encounters something of greater significance than he or she knows. The reader realizes the meaning of the speech or action because the writer has afforded him superior knowledge.
4. Cosmic Irony: this occurs when fate or the
gods (often with a grim sense of humor) step in to lead a human being into an unexpected turn of events. When Oedipus learns from the oracle that he is doomed to marry his mother and kill his father, he flees
Corinth hoping to escape his fate. In doing so, he ironically fulfills this deadly
More on Irony (B.McDaniel)
Laurence Perrine defines irony as “a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy
or incongruity.” The Riverside Anthology of Literature gives us a more
usual definition of irony: “A mode of writing in which truth appears in
a mask that disguises it” (1574). M.H. Abrams, in his A Glossary of Literary Terms, gives us the origin of the word “irony” from the Greek: “In Greek comedy the character called the eiron was a
dissembler, who characteristically spoke in understatement and deliberately pretended to be less intelligent than he was,
yet triumphed over the alazon—the self-deceiving and stupid braggart”
The problem with all these definitions is that they give us a glimpse of what irony is but they don’t exactly
help a reader to identify irony when we encounter it in our reading. Some people
say it is the use of the unexpected in a story or poem, but in a piece of literature not everything that comes along unexpectedly
is always ironic. And defining the term as “saying the opposite of what
one means” only addresses one type of irony. The easiest way to learn to
identify irony is to break the concept down into the 3 types of irony because each is achieved in a different way by an author.
Verbal irony is “a figure of speech in which the opposite is said from what is intended” (Perrine 201).
Abrams says this statement “usually involves the explicit expression of
one attitude or evaluation, but with indications in the overall speech-situation that the speaker intends a very different,
and often opposite attitude or evaluation” (135). A good example is when
we look out the window during a rainstorm and say, “Nice day!” (Birkerts 578).
Verbal irony can be used simply and can be very easy to identify. But
sometimes it can be quite complex, almost hidden in the text. Abrams tells us
the meaning and evaluations may be subtly qualified rather than simply reversed, and
the clues to the ironic counter-meanings under the literal statement—or even to the fact that the author intends the
statement to be understood ironically—may be oblique and unobtrusive. That
is why recourse to irony by an author tends to convey an implicit compliment to the intelligence of readers.... That is also
why many literary ironists are misinterpreted and sometimes...get into serious trouble with the obtuse authorities (135).
The difficult thing about verbal irony is that it is often confused with sarcasm. The aim of sarcasm is to cause pain by using language which causes embarrassment or wounded emotions. Irony is a much more subtle use of language, and generally is not intended to cause
Dramatic irony occurs when an author (usually in plays) creates a “contrast between what a character says and
what the reader [audience] knows to be true” (Perrine 202). A classic example
of dramatic irony is in Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex. At the beginning of the play Oedipus is called on to find the murderer of old King Laius in order to end
the plague on Thebes. Oedipus vows to track down and punish the killer, never
even considering that he himself might be the guilty party. He says:
As for the criminal, I pray to God—
Whether it be a lurking thief, or one of a number—
I pray that that man’s life be consumed in evil and wretchedness.
And as for me, this curse applies no less
If it should turn out that the culprit is my guest here,
Sharing my hearth.
You have heard the penalty (Scene 1, lines 29-35).
Sophocles’ audience, knowledgeable in the ancient stories, would have already been aware
of the fact that Oedipus had met his father on the road years earlier, had an argument with the man and killed him in a fit
of rage. Further, the audience would have been well aware of the rest of the
story: that Oedipus had come to Thebes, saved the city from the Sphinx and earned
the gift of the throne, and then married his own mother without realizing her true identity.
Thus, Oedipus curses himself from the beginning of the story and the audience sees very clearly how the man is unable
to see the truth.
Abrams clarifies the idea of dramatic irony in his definition, as he says it “involves a situation in a play
or a narrative in which the audience or reader shares with the author knowledge of present or future circumstances of which
a character is ignorant; in that situation, the character unknowingly acts in a way we recognize to be grossly inappropriate
to the actual circumstances, or expects the opposite of what we know that fate holds in store, or says something that anticipates
the actual outcome, but not at all in the way that the character intends” (136-137).
Situational irony occurs when the author is able to hide or disguise the true state of affairs from the reader or audience
and then spring it on us as a surprise.
It is a moment in the story when “led to expect or believe one thing, we suddenly confront a different outcome”
(Birkerts 577). Perrine tells us situational irony “is usually the most
important kind for the story writer [because] the discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or between expectation and
fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate” (203).
A famous story which utilizes situational irony is Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, in which
an invalid woman is gently told of her husband’s supposed death in an accident.
She secretly rejoices in the news because now she will finally have a chance to live her life freely and make her own
choices; even though her sister and friends believe the woman has locked herself in her room to grieve, she is actually celebrating
when the husband comes in—completely unaware that there has even been an accident, much less that he has been reported
dead. The shock of seeing her husband alive and realizing that she is not free
after all is too much for her weak heart: the woman dies.
All forms of irony depend on the unexpected in some way, and rely on the reader or audience to intelligently perceive
the slight smile as the author says one thing and means another, or invites us to delight in the discomfort of a character
who discovers that reality is not what she thought it was.
A. Read the following poem.
Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
1. Shelley has embedded one speaker’s voice
(the traveler’s) inside another’s. And Ozymandias’s words are
embedded in the traveler’s. How do these voices differ?
2. Characterize Ozymandias. [Ozymandias was an ancient Egyptian tyrant.] Can think of
any historical or contemporary figures who might see themselves as Ozymandias saw himself?
3. What is the traveler’s response to the ruins
and the words of Ozymandias?
4. What kind(s) of irony are used in this poem? What is the theme? How does the irony
communicate this message to the reader?
the following poem. Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
by Edwin Arlington
Whenever Richard Cory
went down town,
We people on the pavement
looked at him:
He was a gentleman
from sole to crown,
Clearn favored, and
And he was always
And he was always
human when he talked;
But still he fluttered
pulses when he said,
and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes,
richer than a king—
And admirably schooled
in every grace:
In fine, we thought
that he was everything
To make us wish that
we were in his place.
So on we worked, and
waited for the light,
And went without the
meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory,
one calm summer night,
Went home and put
a bullet through his head.
1. In how many senses is Richard Cory a gentleman?
2. List the words that express or suggest the idea of aristocracy or royalty.
How is this poem a
good example of irony? It makes no direct statement about life; it simply relates
an incident. What larger meanings about life does it suggest?
years ago I had a conversation with a student in my senior English class about the relative merits of various universities
she was interested in for her college education. When I asked her which schools
were on her list, she replied, “Harvard, Yale, Vassar. I might think about
Brown, but it’s kinda down the list.” I questioned why she was interested
only in those particular schools, and she said she didn’t think any future employer would seriously consider her for
a job if she didn’t graduate from a “name” university.
student had made her list of educational institutions into a set of symbols. To
her, these schools represented places which might lead to a job in the future, and she assumed that any business she might
be interested in working for would attach the same symbolic meaning to the same list.
(She also assumed that businesses would attach a negative symbolism to any school not
on her list.) Whether she was correct or not in her assumption doesn’t
really matter, although it could easily be argued that many people are employed in enjoyable, productive positions in good
careers without having ever set foot in any of the universities mentioned here. What
does matter is that, for this young woman, these names represented success and security.
They meant something more than just names to identify educational institutions.
The simplistic definition of symbolism is “something
that stands for something else” (Beaty and Hunter 951). That means, literally,
that every word on this page is a symbol, because each stands for a thing or concept which has meaning for the reader. We learn the symbolism of words as we learn language when we are small, and we communicate
by means of shared understandings of those symbols. But understanding symbolism
is not as easy as mastering a set of definitions, because the meanings often change with the situation being expressed.
So how do authors send their messages through
literary symbols? Sven Birkerts discusses this process in depth:
A certain ambiguity is necessary for the symbol-making process to succeed. An
object or a situation can be charged with significance, but it must also be convincingly itself. That is, we must believe in the actual reality of the [object] in the story if its symbolism is to affect
us. Otherwise, we are too conscious of the fact that the author has tried to
inject meaning deliberately, and our reading response is contaminated.
When it is used effectively in a work of fiction, a symbol deepens the thematic resonance and involves the reader more
deeply in the discovering and making of meanings. While the associations tend
to radiate outward and extend the reach of the work, the symbol itself often works like a magnet, pulling the stray bits of
metal—the more incidental elements—into a pattern. When we encounter
the symbol and feel its power, we often feel that we have touched an archetypal, or universal, layer of the human soul. We experience a sense of reconance and uplift that cannot be fully explained or analyzed
Here is a summary
of several different kinds of symbolism.
Public (Conventional) Symbolism
Traditional “emblems”, such as a
dove representing peace or a bride wearing a white dress, are what we call public or conventional symbols. These are objects, actions, people, places, or ideas that are understood by many people within a particular
culture. (Some conventional symbols, in fact, are so universal as to hold their
meaning in different cultures.) Birkert says, “Our participation in society
is, to some degree, dependent on our willingness to recognize and use these tokens of shared meaning. We usually do this so automatically that we are not even aware of participating in acts of symbolic behavior”
Private symbols can be something as simple as
a special napkin saved from the prom to remind us of the fun we had that evening. On
that level, private symbols have meaning only for the people who are involved in the situation. In literature, they “may be ... intrinsic to the work..., revealing their symbolic character only
gradually through repetition or strategic placement (Birkerts 125). It is these
private symbols which cause difficulties in interpretation, because even common symbols can be invested with meanings particular
to that specific literary passage. As Birkerts says, “We need some reason
for thinking that the author intended A to represent B....[S]ymbols, if they are used effectively, should allow us to feel
their power—we shouldn’t have to go hunting for them. If we find
ourselves searching too hard, the odds are that there is no symbol, or that the author’s attempt to introduce one has
Generally speaking, a name is just a label which
doesn’t tell us anything about the person to whom it is attached. However,
“authors may choose names for their characters that serve not only to label them but also to suggest something about
them. In his fictional trilogy The Forsyte
Saga, John Galsworthy chooses Forsyte as the family name of his principal characters to indicate their practical foresightedness”
Symbolic Use of Objects and Actions
This usage of
symbolism is likely the most important in terms of communicating a story’s message.
stories these symbols will fit so naturally into the literal context that their symbolic value will not at first be apparent
except to the most perceptive reader. In other stories—usually stories
with a less realistic surface—they will be so central and so obvious that they will demand symbolical interpretation
if the story is to yield significant meaning. In the first kind of story the
symbols reinforce and add to the meaning. In the second kind of story they carry
the meaning (197).
at length the importance of understanding and recognizing symbolism:
to interpret symbols is nevertheless essential for a full understanding of literature.
Beginning readers should be alert for symbolical meanings but should observe the following cautions:
1. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically....Symbols nearly always
signal their existence by emphasis, repetition, or position. In the absence of
such signals, we should be reluctant to identify an idea as symbolical.
2. The meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire context of the story [or
poem]. The symbol has its meaning in
the story, not outside it....
3. To be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kind
from its literal meaning: a symbol is something more than the representative
of a class or type....Every interpretative story suggests a generalization about life, is more than a recounting of the specific
fortunes of specific individuals....
4. A symbol may have more than one meaning. It may suggest a
cluster of meanings. At its most effective a symbol is like a many-faceted jewel: it flashes different colors when turned in the light.
This is not to say that it can mean anything we want it to: the area of
possible meanings is always controlled by the context. Nevertheless, this possibility
of complex meaning, plus concreteness and emotional power, gives the symbol its peculiar compressive value....The meaning
cannot be confined to any one...[quality]: it is all of them, and therein lies
the symbol’s value (199-201).
Be aware that imagery, metaphor and symbolism can sometimes be difficult to differentiate; sometimes we think a symbol
looks like imagery, for example. It may be helpful to keep in mind Perrine’s
easy definition: “An image means only what it is; the figurative term of
a metaphor means something other than what it is; and a symbol means what it is and something more too” (590). Of course, sometimes imagery can be used to convey a symbol, or a metaphor can be
used symbolically. The imagery or metaphor does not suddenly stop being an image
or metaphor just because it has also become a symbol. If you are confused as
to the difference between a symbol and a metaphor, consider that the metaphor must imply a pair of subjects to establish the
comparison, while a symbol implies only a single subject since it does not compare anything.
Birkerts tells us that “symbols differ from conventional metaphors...in that what is symbolized is generally
a concept or an abstraction, and that the importance is more universalized. The
purpose of a metaphor is to heighten some particular attribute...while the purpose of a symbol is to point the reader toward
a larger, and more generalized, order of significance” (665).
A. Read the following poem.
Then answer the questions at the bottom of the page.
SPECIAL ADDENDUM: POETRY:
and analyzing poetry for diction, imagery, allusions, etc, answer the following questions:
1. Is there a moment of choice or change in the poem? Is the poem set in one unchanged world? Or
does a change take place from the poem’s beginning to its end? Is there
a change, does it happen to the poem, or is there a moment of choice for the poet/narrator?
2. Is there cause and effect? Does the writer link her state of mind or experience to any particular event or cause? If so, does this link resonate for you? Is there causality
at all? If there is no causality in the poem, do emotions or events arise for
no particular reason?
3. What is the tension between the physical and the psychological, the earthly and the spiritual, the mind and the body? Do
the objects and physical settings in the poem work for or against the emotions expressed?
In the world of the poem, does the physical lead to spiritual enlightenment—or block it? Are mind and body at war? Are earthly and spiritual aspects
of the poem in tension? Or is only one of these aspects present? If so…where is the other?
4. What is the poem’s subject? What is the poem about? Remember, this doesn’t need
to be a declarative sentence: you can answer it with a motif: “Grief.” “Friendship.” “Ireland.” What word or phrase seems to name the
core around which the poem resolves?
5. Where is the self? Is the poet’s “self” in the poem? If so,
what is the relationship between that self and the subject of the poem?
6. Do you feel sympathy? To ask “Do you feel sympathy with this poem?” is to ask, “Do you agree?” Does the poem resonate with you—or is it foreign to your experience?
Can you identify which parts of the poem you recognize, and which seem alien?
7. How does the poet relate to those who came before? Where does the poet stand in the rhetoric of ideas?
In the past, critics have seen younger poets as rebelling against their elders, developing their own poetic styles
in reaction to an older generation; or they have viewed younger poets as taking the techniques, themes, and even the language
of older poets and incorporating them into new poetic works. Do you recognize
either of these relationships among the poetic works that you have read?*
comes from The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Bauer.
REMEMBER: Literature is art, and the writer
is an artist. He crafts the work carefully, placing emphasis on certain things
and not on others. He has a unique vision of the world, and he is willing to
share it with you. You see the world through his eyes. It is the artist’s job to provoke a response. If you loved a book, the artist has done
his job; however, if you hated the book, he probably did his job too. The artist
doesn’t necessarily try to ingratiate himself with you. He might want to
disgust you; he might want to outrage you. If that was his goal, your loathing
might be just what he wants.
a young person, you may lack the necessary life experiences to truly comprehend what the author is doing. Your negative response to something now might change dramatically with time and maturity. Give yourself a break. Insight, perception, logic, intuitive
feelings are honed through the years. Do the best you can now. Take chances; stick your neck out. Be bold. Avoid hedging your statements. Don’t
use words like “probably,” “maybe,” “possibly,” “almost,” etc. Say: IT
IS THIS! And have the courage of your convictions. Use your imagination and
your creativity to guide you. They won’t let you down.