{Journal entry #5} So. Many. Figures.

I... don't even know where to begin.


So I found this lovely picture of existential crisis as an example of some figures of speech, and honestly, mood. We did an activity in which groups had to showcase a chosen figure in a creative way, and craft a summary to share with our classmates so we could revise for the midterm. We then proceeded to check a really extensive list with the professor, and tried to apply them to some poems. It was terribly anxiety inducing and I'm not sure I even learnt a new one. 

I don't know what would be the best way to learn these, but this was not it. It was too quick-paced and abstract. I remember several presentations and activities better than the actual figures themselves, and though I got an understanding of how a particular figure worked, I'd be hard pressed to recall its name in a meaningful way during analysis.

But let us attempt. First of all, what is a figure of speech?

According to the book we used, Figures of Speech: 60 ways to turn a phrase, they are ways of writing/speaking that help us stylistically. Used well, they should facilitate or elevate the intended message, though, as Quinn the author admits, they often do nothing of the sort. These are some other quoted definitions: "a way of saying one thing in terms of something else" (Meyer, not wrong but falling short, in my opinion) and "any striking or unusual configuration of words or phrases (Lanham,  also not wrong but lacking awareness of conceptual metaphors).

The problem, or well, my problem is that, while useful for the poet, and somewhat useful for analysis (I mean, establishing that there is figure of speech in use it's not actually useful if you don't identify its use), there are just. too. many. Even Quinn writes in the preface that they should not be learnt "the way we learn the periodic table of elements" and that it should be more "like learning how to model clay".

Well, I'm not the best pottery maker (and believe you me, I have tried), so let us just review some of my favorite ones and then I'll cry while I review them for the midterm:

(1) Sound-related

Thinking of the poem as a sound experience, these are my favorite kind as I believe them to be intrinsic to the poetic endeavor and therefore truly useful (also, they are dead easy to catch).

a. Onomatopoeia: words imitate the sound (you know, like "grrr", "buzz", etc)
b. Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds (which, you know, is often onomatopoeic in nature)
c. Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds
d. Cacophony: Sounds put together unpleasantly
e. Euphony: Sounds put together pleasantly

(2) Image-related

a. Symbol: An image that suggests more than its literal meaning, it can be conventional (commonly used, but still culture-specific) or literary (goes beyond traditional interpretation, often ambiguous)
b. Paradox: Statement that might seem contradictory at first, but (kind of) makes sense
c. Oxymoron (isn't this antithesis?): Condensed paradox where two contradictory concepts are used together

(3) Classic big-hitters

a. Metaphor: Implicitly comparing one thing in terms of another, like the sun over Juliet's shoulders
b. Extended-metaphor (isn't this an allegory?): When the comparison extends to the whole poem (is it because the allegory is more narrative? It pertains the whole narrative? I'm still not sure)
c. Simile: Explicitly comparing Juliet's face to the sun, using words such as like
d. The inevitable Metonymy/Synecdoche riff: (I kind of get it, but also don't see why a distinction needed to be made) the former is an association relationship where the thing replacing the other is not actually part of it ("the Crown declined to speak" = "the Queen/the British monarchy declined to speak"), while the latter is a  direct whole for part/part for whole replacement metaphor (as in "hands on deck" = "the sailors on deck")
e. Personification: Assigning human actions/traits to inanimate objects/concepts/animals

(4) New ones (to me) that might come in handy (because I think they're neat)

a. Aphaeresis: Omitting the first syllable or letter of a word
b. Apocope: Omitting the last syllable or letter of a word
c. Aposiopesis: Stopping suddenly midcourse, leaving a statement unfinished
d. Chiasmus: The sense of a line or clause is inverted, as in a mirror
e. Climax: Mounting by degrees of linked words or phrases, usually in increasing weight and in parallel construction (so... isn't it parallelism?)

There are like 30 more, so... just wish me luck, folks.