ALLITERATION. "Soon amid the soft silver sadness in the sky..."
(Carole King, "Tapestry") [JC]
"In a somer seson, whan soft was the sonne,
I shope me into shroudes, as I a shepe were;"
--William Langland (14th century)  [CF]

AMBIGUITY: Sign on freeway says, " Large trucks must use
right two lanes." (Dr. Weaver) [DJ]

ANADIPLOSIS: "Love is a lie, and lies are made to love."
(Reflections '97: MMHS production) [DJ]
"Absence is to love what wind is to fire;
It extinguishes the small; it kindles the great."
(Comte de Bussay-Rabutin)

ANTIPHRASIS: "The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters;
and all the air is filled with PLEASANT NOISE of waters."
--William Wordsworth  [CF]

ANALOGY. "The great nations have always acted like
gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes."
(Stanley Kubrick)
"History is to the nation rather as memory is to the individual. As
an individual deprived of memory becomes disoriented and lost,
not knowing where he has been or where he is going, so a nation denied a
conception of its past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its
future." (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) [JoB]

ANAPHORA. "Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to
truth./Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust./Lead me
from hate to love, from war to peace./Let peace fill our heart,
our world, our universe."
(Satish Kumar, adapted from THE UPANISHADS)  
"Each time we slowed down, each time we stopped, each time
we saw some little sign of life: the kids--there was another one,
a girl we sometimes saw--the lawn newly mowed, a garage
door open."  (Brett Lott, "The Man Who Owned Vermont") [JC]
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in
your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
(Oh the places you'll go, Dr. Seuss) [DJ]
"So bad Aurora. Dear my soul is grey / With poring over the long
sum of ill; / So much for vice, so much for discontent, / So much for
the necessities of power, / So much for the connivances of fear . . .".
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning, AURORA LEIGH) [JoB]
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways....
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love the with the passion put to use....
(Elizabeth Browning, Sonnet XLIII 1806-1861) [SN]

ANTITHESIS.  "We must learn to live together as brothers or
perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at
St. Louis, 1964)

APOSTROPHE. "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
(Juliet in Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET) [JoB]
"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art"
--John Keats [CF]

ASSONANCE: "Strips of tinfoil winking like people"
--Sylvia Plath [CF]

ASYNDETON. "In some ways, he was this town at its best--
strong, hard-driving, working feverishly, pushing, building, driven
by ambitions so big they seemed Texas-boastful."
(Mike Royko, "A Tribute") [JC]

BDELYGMIA. "One reason, apart from idleness, why we had
neglected the matter of insurance was that we detested insurance
companies, with their weasel words and evasions and extenuating
circumstances, and their conditional clauses set in miniscule,
illegible type." (Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence) [JC]

CATEGORIA. "The devil a Puritan that he is, or anything constantly
but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass, that cons state without book and
utters it by great swarths; the best persuaded of himself; so crammed,
as he thinks, with excellencies that it is his grounds of faith that all that
look on him love him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find notable
cause to work." (Maria in Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT) [JoB]

CHIASMUS. "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol
has taken out of me." (Winston Churchill)       
"Forty is the old-age of youth and the youth of old-age."
(Oscar Wilde)    
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
--Matthew 16:25  [TM]
"If there were water and no rock,
If there were rock and also water"
--T.S Elliot's "The Waste Land" [JM]
"If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white
men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the
blacks."  (Frederick Douglass, SPEECH: AN APEAL TO
CONGRESS FOR IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE) [SN]

CLIMAX "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
(St.John Chapter 14,verse 4)  [RC]                                     

COMMORATIO. "He departed, he withdrew, he strode off, he
broke forth." (Cicero, speech)
The 3-Headed Knight: "He buggered off! So he has! He's
skonkered!"
Minstrel: "Brave Sir Robin ran away
Bravely ran away, away
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, Brave Sir Robin turned about
Undoubtedly he chickened out
Bravely taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat..."
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail [JB]

CROT. "Shit Happens. Pass the salt please." ( An Original ) [EWL]

DEHORTATIO "Just say no" (anti-drug advertisement) [RC]
"Sow seed-but let no tyrant reap:
Find wealth-let no impostor heap:
Weave robes-let not the idle wear:
Forge arms- in your defense to bear."
(Shelly, "A Song: 'Men of England' ") [EG]

DIACOPE: "I wait and I wait till you blow my mate to me"
Walt Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" [JM]
"Someone ate the baby,
It's rather sad to say.
Someone ate the baby
So she won't be out to play.
We'll never hear her whiney cry
Or have to feel if she is dry.
We'll never hear her asking, "Why?"
Someone ate the baby.
(Shel Silverstein, "Dreadful")

EFFECTIO.
"Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size . . .
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips . . .
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
The joy in my feet . . .
It's the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breast,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal Woman,
That's me."
(Maya Angelou, "Phenomenal Woman") [EWL]

ELLIPSIS.  "Twenty-two years old, weak, hot, frightened, not daring to
acknowledge the fact that he didn't know who or what he was . . .
with no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no address book,
no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket handkerchief, no rug, no
bed, no can opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key, no
tobacco pouch, no soiled underwear and nothing nothing nothing to
do . . . he was sure of one thing only: the unchecked monstrosity
of his hands." (Toni Morrison, Sula)

ENCOMIUM. "Farewell dear babe, my heart's too much content, /
Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye, / Farewell fair
flower that for a space was lent, / Then ta'en away unto eternity. /
Blest babe . . .".
(Anne Bradstreet, "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth
Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and Half Old")
[JoB]

ENTHYMEME-- "I'm not conceited, I'm only as good as
I say I am."  [KD]

EPANALEPSIS--"Say over again, and yet once over again,"
(Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, "Sonnets from the Portuguese #21") [EG]
EPANALEPSIS: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say,
Rejoice."  (PPhillipians 4:4)  [SN]

EPIPHORA--"Can we take it back, all the way back, take it
way back . . .".
("I Don't Wanna Be Without You," Alliyah) [EWL]

EPIPLEXIS:  "Are you stupid or something?
What part of NO don't you understand? The N or the O?"
(Slang) [EWL]
"You think what I do is playing God, but you
presume you know what God wants. Do you think that's not
playing God?" -- John Irving, The Cider House Rules [JB]
"Have you been drinking?"  "Have you lost your mind?" [RC]

EPITHET "Snow-white laundry" and "Cutting-edge reporting" [RC]

EPIZEUXIS: "Damn,damn,damn James!" (Good Times, Florida
Evans) [KD]
"Good. Good. Good. That's right! Speak Up!"
(John in David Mamet's OLEANNA) [JoB]
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death."  (Shakespeare, Macbeth) [MS]

EROTESIS-- Ain't I a Woman? (novel, Debroah Gray White) [KD]

EUPHEMISM: Ground beef=ground flesh of a dead cow.
veal=tender dead flesh of a baby cow.  [DJ]

EXERGASIA:  "A child said to me WHAT IS THE GRASS?
fetching it to me with full hands;/...I guess it must be the flag of my
disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven./Or I guess it is
the handerkerchief of the Lord,/A scented gift and remembrancer
designedly dropt,/Bearing the owner's name someway in the
corners, that we may see and remark, and say WHOSE?/Or I guess
the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the
vegetation./Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,/And it
means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,/Growing
among black folks as among white,/Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman,
Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same./And now it
seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
--Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself" [JB]

GRADATIO.  "Now the trumpet summons again -- not as a call
to arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled
we are -- but a call to bear the burden . . ."
(John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address) [EWL]

HOMIOITELEUTON-- "But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-
we cannot consecrate- we cannot hallow- this ground"
--Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address [StR]

HYPERBOLE.  
" To see a world in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour!" (William Blake) [LE]

HYPOPHORA. "Why is mob murder permitted by a Christian
nation? What is the cause of this awful slaughter? This question
is answered almost daily--always the same shameless falsehood
that 'Negroes are lynched to protect womanhood.' ... This is the
never-varying answer of lynchers and their apologists. All know
that it is untrue. The cowardly lyncher revels in murder, then
seeks to shield himself from public execration by claiming
devotion to woman. But truth is mighty and the lynching record
discloses the hypocrisy of the lyncher as well as his crime."
(Ida B. Wells, "Lynching" 1909)
"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"
(Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman) [StR]
"What is it men in women require?/the Lineaments of
gratified desire./What is it women in men require?/the
Lineaments of gratified desire."
(William Blake, "The Question Answered") [MS]

IRONY: "'In my time,' said the grandmother, folding her
thin veined fingers, 'children were more respectful of their
native states and their parents and everything else. People did
right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!' she said
and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack."
--Flanner O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" [JB]

ISOCOLON. "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready
man; and writing an exact man." (Francis Bacon, "Of Studies")
"A hard head, makes a soft behind." (Mom) [JAJ]
"To the victors, go the spoils."

MALAPROPISM.  "This is an Unamimous message, there is a
bomb on your campus!" (Student on a pay phone attempting to
avoid a quiz) [MS]

MEIOSIS. "ambulance chaser" for "lawyer" [JAJ]
"Jocks" instead of "athletes" [StR]
"number cruncher" for "accountant" [AC]
King Arthur: "The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the
purest shimmering samite held aloft excaliber from the bosom of
the water..."
Peasant: "Listen, strange women lying in ponds
distributing swords is no basis for a system of government...
Power derives from the masses not from some farcical aquatic
ceremony."
King Arthur: "Be quiet!"
Peasant: "You can't expect to wield supreme power
because some watery tart threw a sword at you."
King Arthur: "Shut up!"
Peasant: "If I went around saying I was an emperor
because some moistened bink had lobbed a scimitar at me..."
-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail   [JB]
"Those damned scribbling women." 
(Melville on female authors).  [MS]

METAPHOR. "Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot
approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any
sect." (Jiddu Krishnamurti, speech)
"Well son I tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
and splinters,
and boards torn up,
and places with no carpet on the floor-Bare."
( Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son") [EWL]

METONYMY: "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"
T.S Elliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"  [JM]

ONOMATPOEIA: "My stick fingers click with a snicker/ And,
chuckling, they knuckle the keys;/ Lght-footed, my steel feelers
flicker/And pluck from these keys melodies."
(John Updike, "Player Piano") [JoB]

PARATAXIS.  "Twenty-two years old, weak, hot, frightened, not daring to
acknowledge the fact that he didn't know who or what he was . . .
with no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no address book,
no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket handkerchief, no rug, no
bed, no can opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key, no
tobacco pouch, no soiled underwear and nothing nothing nothing to
do . . . he was sure of one thing only: the unchecked monstrosity
of his hands." (Toni Morrison, Sula)

PERSONIFICATION--Suddenly the freight car lurches.
(James Wright)  [SH]

POLYPTOTON: "In her first passion woman loves her lover,
in all others, all she loves is love."--Byron, Don Juan, III [ShR]
"The Greeks are strong and skilful in their strength, fierce to their
skill, and to their fierceness valiant." (Shakespeare) [AC]

POLYSYNDETON.
"A cloud of dust that blotted out the sky,
And swept the plain, and stripped the woodlands bare,
And shook the firmament. We closed our eyes
And waited till the heaven-sent plague should pass.
At last it ceased, and lo! there stood this maid."
(Sophocles, "Antigone") [SD]
"Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among the dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun."
(W. B. Yeats, "The Song of Wandering Aengus")

PROVERB: "First deserve, then desire." --Anon. [ShR]
"Aptitude starts with attitude." --Greg Norman, golfer. [ShR]

SIMILE--"smoothing the wood as the sea smoothes glass"
(Donald Hall) [SH]

TETRACOLON CLIMAX. 
"Sees't thou how Zeus would in our lives fulfil
The weird of Oedipus, a world of woes!
For what of pain, affliction, outrage, shame,
Is lacking in our fortunes, thine and mine?"
(Sophocles, "Antigone") [SD]

TRICOLON.  "We came, we saw, we conquered."
(Caesar)  [StR]
Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral,
or fattening. (Murphy's Law) [AC]

                             

                        English 5730 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
                                Armstrong Atlantic State University
                                Savannah, Georgia 31419
                                912/921 5991
 
                           e-mail:  metaphor@email.com         

                                       

05 January 2002