Lesson Plans

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read “Chapter 5 - Figurative Language 1: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy,” p. 704-715 in Perrine’s Literature.” They should also have written out responses to the items Exercises 1-10 at the conclusion of the chapter. They should also have jotted down one or two examples of metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, and synecdoche not given in the book.

Objectives: To explain how figurative language enhances poetic meaning

Activities:

• A. Collect homework.

• B. Review the concept of figurative language.

  • 1. With figurative language a person can express thoughts more vividly and forcefully than by direct statement.
  • 2. Figurative language says more than literal language.
  • 3. A figure of speech is a way of saying one thing and meaning another.

• C. Review the definitions of the first set of figures of speech.

  • 1. A simile is a directly expressed comparison.
  • 2. A metaphor is an implied comparison that takes one of four possible forms.
    • a. Type 1: both the literal and the figurative terms are named.
    • b. Type 2: the literal term is named and the figurative term is implied.
    • c. Type 3: the literal term is implied and the figurative term is named.
    • d. Type 4: both the literal and the figurative terms are implied.
  • 3. Personification consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept.
  • 4. Apostrophe consists in addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if that person or thing were present and alive and could reply to what is being said.
  • 5. Synecdoche is the use of the part for the whole.
  • 6. Metonymy is the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant.

• D. Discuss four principles of the effectiveness of figurative language.

  • 1. Figurative language affords us imaginative pleasure.
  • 2. Figurative language is a way of bringing additional imagery to verse, of making the abstract concrete, of making poetry more sensuous.
  • 3. Figurative language is a way of adding emotional intensity to otherwise merely informative statements and of conveying attitudes along with information.
  • 4. Figurative language is an effective means of concentration, a way of saying much in brief compass.

• E. Have students brainstorm metaphors and similes that have become so commonplace and clichéd that we no longer see them as fresh or even figurative (for example, “time flies,” “flood of tears,” “food for thought,” “dumber than dirt,” and so forth).

  • 1. Why would these expressions no longer be effective in poetry?
  • 2. How are they different from the students’ poetic examples?

• F. Point out that many metonymies (for example, “all hands on deck,” “get your rear end over her,” “eyes on your own paper”) and synecdoches (for example, “the kettle is boiling,” “I gave her my heart,” “the White House agreed,” “she gave him her hand in marriage”) are also dead.

• G. Explain that the term figurative language encompasses all the terms in this chapter, that the term metaphorical language encompasses all figurative comparisons, that personification and simile are types of metaphors, that all synecdoches are metonymies.

• H. Go over answers to Exercises 1-10 on p. 715.

  Personification – The dawn is treated as if it were someone with a superior attitude filling a vessel.

  Metaphor – The sky is figuratively compared to an urn and sunshine to a fire.

  Simile – The literal words are compared to figurative sunbeams.

  Personification – Joy, Temperance, and Repose – three attitudes or behaviors – are treated as though they were persons leading a healthy life. Therefore, the slamming of the door is figurative as well; it means such a person has no need of a doctor.

  Metonymy – The “pen” is closely associated with the writing of words, and the “sword” is closely associated with force or violence. The upshot is that words are more effective than violence.

  Metaphor – “Oaths” (to be understood as promises) are compared to straw while “the fire i’ the blood” (to be understood as passion) is compared to fire. In literal language, “Even the strongest promises become weak, flimsy, and easily destroyed when intense desire or emotion overcomes words.

  Metaphor – The inner lives of Cambridge ladies (the women married to Cambridge dons) are compared to rented rooms. Their thoughts are provided by social expectations and conventional ideas, lacking any authentic feeling or individuality.

  This is a literal statement.

  Metaphor – The “desert” (which is literal) is by implication compared to a lion (conventionally described as having a “tawny hide.”

  Metonymy: tomorrow = the day of death; the underlying metaphor is that a lifetime = one day; eating and drinking = living the good life

  10. This is a literal statement. There is always the possibility of dying no matter what we do.

• I. Discuss the concepts of third and fourth order metaphors by answering the questions about “It sifts from Leaden Sieves” by Emily Dickinson on p. 707.

  • 1. This poem consists essentially of a series of metaphors with the same literal term identified only as “It.” What is “It”?

    “It” is snow. Though snow is not named anywhere in the poem, the idea is developed through a series of metaphors in which the literal term is represented by the pronoun “It.” Most of these are metaphors of the third order in which only the figurative term is named: “Alabaster Wool,” (3) “Fleeces,” (11) “Celestial Veil” (12).

  • 2. In several of these metaphors the figurative term is named — “Alabaster Wool” (3), “Fleeces” (11), “Celestial Veil” (12). In two of them, however, the figurative term as well as the literal term is left unnamed. To what is “It” compared in lines 1-2? In lines 17-18?

    In lines 1-2 and 17-18, however, not even the figurative term is named. In lines 1-2 it is flour (“Sieves” and “powders”).

    In 17-18 it is some kind of soft white cloth or lace (“Ruffles Wrists . . . Ankles.” These are metaphors of the fourth order.

  • 3. Comment on the additional metaphorical expressions or complications contained in “Leaden Sieves” (1), “Alabaster Wool” (3), “Even Face” (5), “Unbroken Forehead” (7), “A Summer’s empty Room” (14) and “Artisans” (19).

    The “leaden Sieves” refer to the darkened sky or clouds from which the snow is falling (a metaphor of the third order). But kitchen sieves were ordinarily (during Emily Dickinson’s time) tinware; hence another metaphorical process is involved in the substitution of “Leaden” with its connotations of heaviness and darkness in the weather, as opposed to the lighter, shinier connotations of tin.

    “Wool” as a figurative term for snow suggests softness and whiteness, but the introduction of “Alabaster” as an adjective brings in an additional comparison, making the snow whiter and giving it a surface crustiness or hardness.

    “Face” is an appropriate metaphor for a natural surface (even a dead metaphor in such phrases as “the face of a cliff”), but faces are seldom “Even”—so this is a special face, a face compared to somethign having a smooth, flat surface.

    “Unbroken Forehead” works in a similar way: this is an unwrinkled or unfurrowed forehead. The harvested field of “Stump, and Stack—and Stem” is metaphorically compared to room once inhabited (before the harvest) by a personified summer but now “empty” (no longer filled with growing grain).

    The “artisans” are snowflakes, the ghostlike weavers of the fleeces, veils, ruffles, and laces.

• I. If time permits, have one of the students read “Metaphors,” p. 717 aloud. Ask the students the following questions about the poem. You may use the responses in bold italics to help you gauge their answers.

  • 1. Like its first metaphor, this poem is a riddle to be solved by identifying the literal terms of its metaphors. After you have identified the speaker (“riddle,” “elephant,” “house,” “melon,” “stage,” “cow”), identify the literal meanings of the related metaphors (“syllables,” “tendrils,” “fruit,” “ivory,” “timbers,” “loaf,” “yeasty rising,” “money,” “purse,” “train”). How do you interpret line 8?

    The speaker is a pregnant woman.

    The “loaf” is the growing fetus (an allusion to the slang expression for pregnancy, “she’s got bun in the oven”).

    The “fat purse” is her belly, swollen as if she had eaten a bag of green apples.

    The “red fruit” (like the “yeasty rising” and the “new-minted money”) is the unborn child.

    The “two tendrils” are the pregnant woman’s legs.

    “Ivory” refers to the unborn baby’s skin, “fine timbers” to its delicate bones.

    The “train” is pregnancy; the “nine syllables” are the nine months of pregnancy.

  • 2. How does the form of the poem relate to its content? Is this poem a complaint?

    The poem has nine lines. Each line has nine syllables.

    The second question is OPEN; students’ responses may and should vary.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” pp. 720-721 in Perrine’s Literature and write out responses to the questions that follow on p. 721.