Notes Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Poetic Language
Connotation and Denotation
Denotation – the definition you will find in a dictionary
Connotation – the emotional connection you make with certain words (such as: security, warmth, love)
Figures of Speech
Metaphor – imaginative comparison that uses the connotative values of words.
Ex. "Thy eternal summer will not fade.
The best metaphors, according to some critics, require an intellectual leap…the comparison is often shocking or puzzling.
Ex. "The ecstasy of fumbling" (with gas masks in "Dulce et Decorum Est."
Extended Metaphor
The comparison continues throughout the entire work.
Ex. "In the Long Hall" p. 522
Extended metaphor is comparing life to weaving a tapestry.
Simile
Comparison using "like" or "as."
It is technically correct to call both similes and metaphors – a metaphor.
Personification
Makes nonhuman things seem human.
"Daylight is nobody’s friend."
Imagery – allows something abstract to seem more concrete to readers.
Symbol
Image that is obviously suggesting more meaning than its descriptive value.

Paradox – words that seem contradictory, but make some kind of emotional sense.
Ex. Mary Queen of Scots, "In my end is my beginning."
Oxymoron
Extreme paradox when two words with opposite meanings are juxtaposed.
Ex. "elaborately simple"
Ex. "jumbo shrimp"