1.1 Definition: Simile is when you compare two nouns (persons, places or things) that are
unlike, with \"like\" or \"as.\" Good similes compare two very different nouns.
1.2 Examples
e.g. \"The rain falls like the sun, rising upon the mountains.\" comparing falling rain to the rising of the sun. e.g. A Red, Red Rose O My Luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June;
O My Luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve, And fare thee weel, awhile!
And I will come again, my luve Tho' it ware ten thousand mile!
e.g. Flint (Christina Rossetti 1830-1894) An emerald is as green as grass, A ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven; A flint lies in the mud.
A diamond is a brilliant stone, To catch the world's desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark; But a flint holds a fire.
e.g. Life is like… (Jude Osen Ashiedu, Nigeria)
Life is like wealth. But it is more than money and assets. Life can be sweet. But it is more than food and drink. Life is like a challenge. But it is more than a championship. Life can be so great. But it is more than fame. Life is like a domain. But it is more than a habitant. Life is like a talent. But it is more than a gift. Life is like a teacher. But it is more than education. Life is like a preacher. But it is more than a religion.
Life is like law of karma. But it is more than causes and effects. Life is like a kingdom. But it is more than a people. Life can be frustrating. But it is more than struggles. Life is like death. But it is more than calamities. Life is like symbiosis. But is it more than freedom. Life is like love. But it is more than affection. Life is like good health. But it is more than miracles.
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Life is like a pen. But it is more than a story. Life is like a computer. But it is more than information. Life is like a ghost. But it is more than a creation.
Life is like a clue. But it is more than a mystery. Life is like a toy. But it is more than puppetry. Life is like a breeder of factories. But it is more than procreation. e.g. Hockey (by student) Hockey is like reading
You get into it and then you never want to stop You feel like you're in a different world. Hockey is like school
You have to do your work and you have to practice or you will get an \"F\" Hockey is like math
You get stronger and before you know it You're getting an \"A\" Your scoring goals Now that's Hockey!
e.g. MOON (By Kirsty L. student)
The moon smells like a cold freezer on a cold day . It lights up the sky like a light bulb.
When you look at the moon it looks like blown bubbles and popping popcorn. The moon tastes like chocolate ice cream on a hot day.
The moon sounds like a bell ringing in the middle of the day . 1.3 Ss’ practice
* moon * happiness 2. Metaphor 2.1 Definition:
A metaphor is a pattern equating two seemingly unlike objects. Metaphors are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. 'drowning in debt'; Once you really understand that it isn't the words, but that the EVENT of the poem or message lies BEYOND the words, you will be able to make sense of metaphor in general and open up your world in a significant way. 2.2 Examples
e.g.1 Metaphor for a Family
My family lives inside a medicine chest:
Dad is the super-size band aid, strong and powerful but not always effective in a crisis.
Mom is the middle-size tweezer, which picks and pokes and pinches.
David is the single small aspirin on the third shelf, sometimes ignored.
Muffin, the sheep dog, is a round cotton ball, stained and dirty, that pops off the shelf and bounces in my way as I open the door.
And I am the wood and glue which hold us all together with my love.
e.g.2 Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day Sonnet 18 William Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
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Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The cool thing is that old Will doesn't tell us who \"thee\" would be when they are at home, and leaves it up to the metaphor to explain it to us.
This poem is a riddle, and nicely done at that. But it is easy to solve if we just take the information as is:
What is the one thing about a person that is immortal and grows in eternal lines through time?
The question at the front of this poem is the \"set uphe starting point into the metaphorical domain: \"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?\"
If you want to have some fun, take that same topic and ask another question.
\"Shall I compare thee to a golden horse? Thou art more lovely and more fleet of foot! Thou can't be caught, thou can't be caged, thou can't be ridden - free thou flyest over hill and vale ...\"
e.g. 3 Joy by StarFields
Just when you thought that winter
would be here forever, that it could never end, you saw:
Amidst the frozen white, a tiny tip of green,
first blade of grass, the messenger of spring.
e.g. 4 From the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. e.g. 5
\"My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.\" (William Sharp, \"The Lonely Hunter\")
\"Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food.\" (Austin
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O'Malley)
\"Words are bullets, and should be used sparingly, aimed toward a target.\" (Army Colonel Dick Hallock)
\"It would be more illuminating . . . to say that the metaphor creates the similarity than to say that it formulates some similarity antecedently existing.\" (Max Black, Models and Metaphors, 1962)
\"Language is a road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.\" (Rita Mae Brown)
\"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.\" (John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961) 2.3 Ss’ practice * anger * joy 3. Personification
3.1 Definition: A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed
with human qualities or abilities.
3.2 Examples:
e.g. 1 \"Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.\" (English proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos)
e.g. 2 \"Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.\" (slogan on a package of Oreo cookies)
e.g. 3 My computer hates me. Plants were suffering from the intense heat.
Wind yells while blowing. Opportunity knocked on the
door.
The picture in that magazine shouted for attention. Art is a jealous mistress.
e.g. 4 Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room. William Blake (1757-1827) \"Ah, William, we're weary of weather,\" said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
\"Our traveling habits have tired us. Can you give us a room with a view?\"
They arranged themselves at the window and counted the steps of the sun,
and they both took root in the carpet where the topaz tortoises run.
e.g. 5 The Train By Emily Dickinson I like to see it lap the miles, And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks; And then, prodigious, step
Around a pile of mountains, And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads; And then a quarry pare
To fit its sides, and crawl between,
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Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza; Then chase itself down hill
And neigh like Boanerges; Then, punctual as a start its own,
Stop-docile and omnipotent- A stable door.
e.g. 6 Example poem: Personification is used in lines 1, 3, 5, and 7.
Monday Morning
The alarm clock bellows Five o’clock is too early for any human to be stirring The warm sheets wrap My tired body does not want releasing
The mirror screams I see a zit and a wild hair that needs plucking Monday mornings prod The bed is near and in it I am crawling 3.3 Ss’ practice
* Monday morning 4. Metonymy 4.1 Definition:
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as \"crown\" for \"royalty\"). Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, such as describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual
\"A metonymy neither states nor implies the connections between the objects involved in it. . . . We must already know that the objects are related, if the metonymy is to be devised or understood. Thus, metaphor creates the relation between its objects, while metonymy presupposes that relation.\" (Hugh Bredin, \"Metonymy,\" Poetics Today, 1984)
\"Many standard items of vocabulary are metonymic. A red-letter day is important, like the feast days marked in red on church calendars. Red tide, the marine disease that kills fish, takes its name from the colour of one-celled, plant-like animals in the water. . . . On the level of slang, a redneck is a stereotypical member of the white rural working class in the Southern U.S., originally a reference to necks sunburned from working in the fields.\"(Connie C. Eble, \"Metonymy,\" The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992) 4.2 Etymology: From the Greek, \"change of name\" 4.3 Examples:
e.g. 1 \"The pen is mightier than the sword.\" (Edward Bulwer-Lytton) (The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the sword is an attribute of military action)
\"Her voice is full of money.\" (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)
We await word from the crown. The king or Queen
\"He loves the bottle\" he likes the content, not the bottle itself! (container) \"He writes a fine hand\" good handwriting
\"Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears\" probably the most famous
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example of metonymy by William Shakespeare pay attention (concrete objects for abstract conception) One waitress says to another, “The ham sandwich just spilled beer all over himself.” (working place) \"He is a man of the cloth.\" The writer is actually saying that he is a man of religion, such as a minister. \"Cloth\" is used to stand for \"religion.\"
\"The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings.\" These business men. (wearings; appearances) \"On the way downtown I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any
good. All they did was make me think of Silver Wig, and I never saw her again.\" (nicknames) (Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep) word General dish sweat tongue the press city hall item of crockery perspiration oral muscle printing press a course (in dining) hard work a language or dialect the news media original use metonymic use city government or government in a city's chief administrative building general (Common usage in axiom, \"You can't fight city hall.\") The bar in a courtroom that All the lawyers licensed to practice law separates the judges and lawyers in a certain court or jurisdiction. from the laypeople The location in a courtroom where a All the judges of a court or jurisdiction; judge sits when presiding over court or members of a judiciary. bar bench American Washington capital of the United States the United States federal government The White Official residence of the President the President and staff House of the United States Capitol Hill The Pentagon Quantico Foggy Bottom Hollywood
location of the United States Congressmen and Congress in general Congress building in Arlington, Virginia that the United States Department of Defense houses... town in Virginia that houses the the Federal Bureau of Investigation main training center for... neighborhood in Washington, D.C. the United States Department of State that houses... District of Los Angeles, California, the American film industry historically the primary center of... 6
Broadway Wall Street Silicon Valley street in New York City street in New York City Broadway theatre in particular, and American theatre in general the United States financial markets, of which Wall Street is the largest center geographic region of the San all the high-tech companies located in the Francisco Bay Area area Of persons: Uncle Sam; John Bull; Mr. Wang; Ivan
Of locations: Wall Street; Silicon Valley; The Pentagon; Fleet Street; Downing Street Of animals: British Lion; the Bear; Dragon; Hawk 5. Synecdoche 5.1 Definition:
In the end, synecdoche - part equals whole. Metonyny - thing equals concept. If you can see the image as part of a whole, then it is synecdoche.
If the image is actually a whole thing and represents another whole thing, it is metonymy. 5.2 Etymology: From the Greek, \"gathering together\" 5.3 Examples:
e.g. 1 \"All hands on deck\e.g. 2 “Listen, you've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels.”
One refers to a vehicle in terms of some of its parts, \"wheels\" e.g. 4 Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6 e.g. 5 I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
T. S. Eliot, \"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock\" by T. S. Eliot
e.g. 6 \"20,000 hungry mouths to feed\" is a synecdoche because mouths (A) are a part of the people (B) actually referred to.
* Examples where the whole of something is used to refer to a part of it:
\"Use your head [brain] to figure it out.\"
\"Michigan [the government of Michigan] just passed a law addressing this problem.\" * Examples where a species (specific kind) is used to refer to its genus (more general kind):
\"Could you pass me a Kleenex [facial tissue]?\"
\"I've just finished with the hoover [vacuum cleaner].\"
Similarly, \"coke\" for pop/soda, \"castle\" for home, \"meat\" or \"bread\" for food, \"Judas\" for traitor.
* Examples where the material from which an object is made is used to refer to the object itself:
\"Those are some nice threads [clothes].\"
Similarly, \"willow\" for cricket bat, \"copper\" for penny, \"paper\" for money, \"roof\" for a house, \"boards\" for stage, \"ivories\" for piano keys, \"plastic\" for credit card, \"the hardwood\" for a gym floor, \"pigskin\" for football, \"steel\" for a sword, \"lead\" for a bullet 6. Euphemism
6.1 Greek root-words eu (ευ), \"good/well\" + pheme (φήμη) \"speech/speaking\". 6.2 Examples
mature for old or elderly force, police action, or conflict for war working class neighborhood for ghetto correctional facility for prison
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the big C for cancer (in addition, some people whisper the word when they say it in public
sanitation worker (or, sarcastically, sanitation officer or sanitation engineer), or garbologist, for \"bin man\" or garbage man
Euphemisms for God and Jesus, such as gosh and gee, are used by Christians to avoid taking the name of God in a vain oath, which would violate one of the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20)
(A. Jobs; B. Taboos; C. Unpleasant topics) 7. Irony
7.1 Definition: the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the
same.
“Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment” 7.2 Etymology: From Greek, \"feigned ignorance\" 7.3 Examples
* Irony in Pride and Prejudice
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” \"Is he married or single?\"
\"Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune of four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!\" \"How so? how can it affect them?\"
\"My dear Mr. Bennet,\" replied his wife, \"how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.\" \"Is that his design in settling here?\"
\"Design! nonsense, how can you talk so!\" * Irony in Mark Twain’s works * Ironic similes
as funny as cancer as clear as mud as straight as a circle \"What, does your spirit have cancer?\" ---- sarcastic * Tragic irony
In the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged death-like sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet kills herself with his knife. * Historical irony
\"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.\" Nearly the last words of American Civil War General John Sedgwick before being shot through the eye by a Confederate sniper.
In Dallas, in response to Mrs. Connolly's comment, \"Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you,\" John F. Kennedy said, \"That's very obvious.\" He was assassinated immediately afterwards. 7.4 Ss’ practice
Winter in Chongqing 8. Hyperbole 8.2 Examples
e.g. 1 *My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow; A hundred years should got to praise Thine eyes and on thine forehead gaze;
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Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest.
Andrew Marvell, \"To His Coy Mistress\" e.g. 2 I Swear I Only Napped a Minute Eyes fluttered shut Drool formed a pool
The nap was only to last a minute The sun set
Winters came and went
The nap was only to last a minute Wrinkles formed
Young men grew white beards
The nap may have lasted more than a minute
3. Design handouts for the students that explain hyperbole and offer practice. e.g. 3 from \"Revenge of the Pork Person\" by Dave Barry
I have never met a woman, no matter how attractive, who wasn't convinced, deep down inside, that she was a real woofer. Men tend to be just the opposite. A man can have a belly you could house commercial aircraft in and a grand total of eight greasy strands of hair, which he grows real long and combs across the top of his head so that he looks, when viewed from above, like an egg in the grasp of a giant spider, plus this man can have B.O. to the point where he interferes with radio transmissions, and he will still be convinced that, in terms of attractiveness, he is borderline Don Johnson.
But not women. Women who look perfectly fine to other people are always seeing horrific physical flaws in themselves. I have this friend, Janice, who looks very nice and is a highly competent professional with a good job and a fine family, yet every now and then she will get very depressed, and do you want to know why? Because she thinks she has puffy ankles. This worries her much more often than, for example, the arms race. Her image of herself is that when she walks down the street, people whisper: \"There she goes! The woman with the puffy ankles!\" . . .
What women think they should look like, of course, is the models in fashion advertisements. This is pretty comical, because when we talk about fashion models, we are talking about mutated women, the results of cruel genetic experiments performed by fashion designers so lacking in any sense of human decency that they think nothing of putting their initials on your eyeglass lenses. These experiments have resulted in a breed of fashion models who are 8 and sometimes 10 feet tall, yet who weigh no more than an abridged dictionary due to the fact that they have virtually none of the bodily features we normally associate with females such as hips and (let's come right out and say it) bosoms. The leading cause of death among fashion models is falling through street grates. If a normal human woman puts on clothing designed for these unfortunate people, she is quite naturally going to look like Revenge of the Pork Person.
8.3 Understatement
* (\"Sure, what the hell, it's only cancer...\"),
* \"The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.\"
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(Andrew Marvell, \"To His Coy Mistress\")
* \"I am just going outside and may be some time.\"
(Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to face certain death, 1912) 8.4 Ss’ practice
* Hatred; *Love 9. Transferred Epithet
9.1 Definition: It is a figure of speech where an epithet (an adjective or descriptive phrase) is
transferred from the noun it should rightly modify(修饰) to another to which it does not really apply or belong.
9.2 Etymology: epithet—Greek , “epitheton”, “that which is added”, “ornamental” 9.3 Examples: (blank filling)
* He had some (cheerful/crazy) wine at the party. Wine made him cheerful or crazy
* This new tendency has raised many a (conservative / cynical/critical) eyebrow. Conservative… attitudes of the people
* He ate with a (wolfish) appetite. He was so hungry that he ate like a wolf. * Jack shrugged a (scornful) shoulder. * Now o’er the one half-world,
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep. (Shakespeare)
* And he lay asleep, his white hair picturesque on the untroubled pillow. (Dickens) * He answered with a (helpless/hopeful/hypercritical / dangerous/delighted) smile. * Winter kept as warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. T. S. Eliot The Waste Land 10. Alliteration
10.1 Definition: Alliteration is the repeated occurrence of the same consonant sound at the
beginning of several words in the same phrase.
10.2 Warming-up
\"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers …\". Tongue twister 10.3 Examples:
* Dewdrops Dancing Down Daisies By Paul Mc Cann Don't delay dawns disarming display . Dusk demands daylight . Dewdrops dwell delicately drawing dazzling delight .
Dewdrops dilute daisies domain. Distinguished debutantes . Diamonds defray delivered Daylights distilled daisy dance .
* Cipher Connected By Paul McCann
Careless cars cutting corners create confusion . Crossing centrelines.
Countless collisions cost coffins. Collect conscious change. Copy?
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Continue cautiously. Comply? Cool .
* Wisdoms Wings By Paul Mc Cann
Wise words wait, while whiskey with water will whet Wexford whistles wonderfully . Wisdoms weaver works with wit ,
while writing words with whispering winds whooshing wildly .
Whiskey without water . Without wondering, why where words wasted . Within walls .
While whiskey went well without water, While wit was wringing wet . Writing wisdoms wings * In prose We should not demean our democracy with the politics of distraction, denial, and despair. (Al Gore)
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden. (John F. Kennedy) * In newspaper headings Bread Not Bombs Dare Devil Who Dared
Cut Crime with Jobs—Not Jails Better Active Today than Radioactive Tomorrow 10.4 Assonance *Definiton: Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse.
*on a proud round cloud in a white high night - e.e. cummings *haste makes waste * Jean Ingelow
I shall never see her more
Where the reeds and rushes quiver, Shiver, quiver;
Stand beside the sobbing river, Sobbing, throbbing, in its falling To the sandy lonesome shore; 10.5 Consonance (homework) * Definiton: Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry characterized by the repetition of two or more consonants using different vowels 11. Paradox 11.1 Definition: A statement that appears to contradict itself
11.2 Etymology: From the Greek, \"incredible, contrary to opinion or expectation\" 11.3 Examples * \"War is peace.\" \"Freedom is slavery.\"
\"Ignorance is strength.\" (George Orwell, 1984) * \"If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness.\" (Alexander Smith)
* \"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's
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own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.\" (Joseph Heller, Catch-22) 故事发生在地中海的一个小岛上，第二次世界大战末期，美军的一个飞行大队驻扎在该岛上。按一般规定，飞满规定次数（最初为25次）的飞行员可以回国，但军规实际上规定，无论何时，必须执行司令官命令做的事情。飞行大队的指挥官凯斯卡上校(卡思卡特上校）是个官迷，他一次一次增加飞行任务，远远超出一般规定。飞行员们都得了恐惧症，变得疯疯癫癫。尤其是投弹手尤塞恩（尤索林，约塞连）上尉，更是惶惶不可终日。在求生欲望的支配下，他在战斗中只想逃命。他装病躲进医院，不久被密探和一个充满“爱国热情”的伤兵吓跑了。他找到一个军医帮忙，想让他证明自己疯了。军医告诉他，虽然按照所谓的“第22条军规”，疯子可以免于飞行，但同时又规定必须由本人提出申请，而如果本人一旦提出申请，便证明你并未变疯，因为“对自身安全表示关注，乃是头脑理性活动的结果”。这样，这条表面讲究人道的军规就成了耍弄人的圈套。当飞行员们出生入死时，那些指挥官们却忙于勾心斗角，还和神通广大的食堂伙食兵米洛组成了一家联营公司M&M企业，大作投机生意，发战争财。尤塞恩目睹了这种种荒谬的现实，最后在同伴们的鼓励下，他逃往中立国瑞典去了。 * \"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.\"
(C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
11.4 Oxymoron * Definition: A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by
side; a compressed paradox.
* Examples:
* \"O brawling love! O loving hate! . . . O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this.\" (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) * the expressions \"act naturally,\" \"original copy,\" \"found missing,\" \"alone together,\" \"peace force,\" \"definite possibility,\" \"terribly pleased,\" \"real phony,\" \"ill health,\" \"turn up missing,\" \"jumbo shrimp,\" \"alone together,\" \"loose tights,\" \"small crowd,\" and \"clearly misunderstood\"
* \"That building is a little bit big and pretty ugly.\" (James Thurber)
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