FIGURES OF SPEECH AP LIT

AIM#120: TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO EFFECTIVELY IDENTIFY AND UNDERSTAND WHAT FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IS. DO NOW: – “The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man.” Jose Ortega u Gasset

FIGURES OF SPEECH Expressions that use words to achieve effects beyond the power of ordinary language—are more prominent in poetry than in other kinds of writing

SIMILE William Wordsworth opens a poem with “I wandered lonely as a cloud” conveys a good deal more than he would if he simply began, “I wandered, lonely.” By comparing his loneliness to a cloud, the speaker suggests that like the cloud he is part of nature and that he too is drifting, passive, blown by winds, and lacking will or substance.

WHEN TWO CONVERGE INTO ONE “Rooming houses are old women,” – Uses a metaphor, equating two elements to stress their common associations with emptiness, transience, and hopelessness. – Also, personification by identifying rooming houses with old women—giving human characteristics

IDENTIFYING THE EXTENDED METAPHOR LOOK AT READ “Rooming houses are old women”

HYPERBOLE AND UNDERSTATEMENT HYPERBOLE IS INTENTIONAL EXXAGERATION UNDERSTATEMENT IS THE OPPOSITE—SAYING LESS THAN IS MEANT

METONYMY AND SYNECDOCHE METONYMY IS THE SUBSTITUTION OF THE NAME OF ONE THING FOR THE NAME OF ANOTHER THING THAT MOST READERS ASSOCIATE WITH THE FIRST: Hired gun to mean paid assassin – Synecdoche is a special kind of metonymy. Is the substitution of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part (using bread as in “Give us this day our daily bread” to mean “food”) (“You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn [meaning its distinctive traits] out of the boy.”

METONYMY AND SYNECDOCHE With metonymy and synecdoche, instead of describing something by saying it is like something else (as in simile) or by equating something with something else (as in metaphor), writers can characterize an object or concept by using a term that evoked it.

APOSTROPHE A POEM’S ADDRESS TO AN ABSENT PERSON OR THING, FOR EXAMPLE, A HISTORICAL, OR LITERARY FIGURE, OR EVEN AN INANIMATE OBJECT, OR AN ABTRACT CONCEPT

CHECKLIST TIME! ARE FIGURES OF SPEECH PRESENT IN THE POEM? IDENTIFY EACH EXAMPLE OF SIMILE, METAPHOR, PERSONIFICATION, METONYMY, SYNECDOCHE, AND APOSTROPHE WHEN TWO ELEMENTS ARE BEING COMPARED IN EACH USE OF SIMILE OR METAPHOR, AND PERSONIFICATION, IS THE COMPARISION LOGICAL? WHAT CHARACTERISTICS ARE SHARED BY THE TWO ITEMS BEING COMPARED? DOES THE POET USE HYPERBOLE? WHY? FOR EXAMPLE, IS IT USED TO MOVE OR TO SHOCK READERS, OR IS ITS USED INTENDED TO PRODUCE A HUMOROUS OR SATIRICAL EFFECT? WOULD MORE UNDERSTATED LANGUAGE BE MORE EFFECTIVE? DOES THE POET USE UNDERSTATEMENT? FOR WHAT PURPOSE? WOULD MORE EMOTIONALLY CHARGED LANGUAGE BE MORE EFFECTIVE?

CHECKLIST CONTINUED IN METONYMY AND SYNECDOCHE, WHAT ITEM IS BEING SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER? WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE SUBSTITUTION SERVE? IF THE POEM INCLUDES APOSTROPHE, WHOM OR WHAT DOES THE SPEAKER ADDRESS? WHAT IS ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE USE OF APOSTROPHE? HOW DO FIGURES OF SPEECH CONTRIBUTE TO THE IMPACT OF THE POEM AS A WHOLE?