PART 1

教师导入

We’ve know many of the elements for writing a poem through the previous two sessions. Now, we have “rhyme”, “metrical rhythm”, “tone”, “image” and “theme”. With all the knowledge you have got, please write a poem of your own with the theme of “love”.

a. Write two of the poems on the blackboard for the class to appreciate. Discuss with the students about the poems’ weakness or merits.

b. Let the students read the lines below and compare them with the previous works written by the students.

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Luve is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

(A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns)

Simile

Q1: Do you think this well-known poem is impressive? How does it impress you?

A1: “A Red, Red Rose” begins with a quatrain containing two similes. Burns compares his love with a springtime blooming rose and then with a sweet melody.

Simile is the commonest figure of speech, to be found in all kinds of literary writings and everyday speech. Simile is specific comparison between two essentially unlike things. It is aimed at illustrating, enhancing the meaning of one thing by means of another.

Q2: The opening stanza of T.S. Eliot's “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” contains two similes that have been widely noticed. Read the poem below, find the similes and explain their function in the poem.

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherised upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

the muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question…

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.

A2: “A patient etherised” and the “evening” are too far apart to be associated with each other in daily conversation. Simile is to create the similarity. By likening “the evening” to “a patient etherised,” the poet intends to convey the paralyzed state of mind.

Q3: How do you judge a simile?

A3: A simile is often marked by the words “like” or “as.”

(function) Using similes attracts attention, and appeals directly to the senses of listeners or readers, encouraging their imaginations to understand what is being communicated.

Simile allows readers to relate the feelings of a writer or a poet to their personal experiences. Therefore, the use of similes makes it easier for readers to understand the subject matter of a literary text, which may have been otherwise too demanding to be comprehended.

教师过渡

a. The Daffodils (By William Wordsworth)

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

that floats on high o’er vales and hills.”

b. I Carry Your Heart with Me (By E. E. Cummings)

“…and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you …”

Q4：Read poem a. and b. and discuss the figure of speech of each.

A4: The first one is simile.

The second one is metaphor.

教师解析

In pome a., the poet envisions himself as a free cloud that floats alone in a blue sky above valleys and the mountains. By choosing this simile, Wordsworth describes his loneliness. In poem b., E. E. Cummings has compared his beloved to moon, as well as to the sun.

Metaphor

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which the quality of one is transferred onto another.

Q5: What’s the relation between a simile and a metaphor?

A5: Metaphor is also a comparison in nature, but the comparison is implicit whereas in a simile it is explicit. A simile juxtaposes two things while metaphor fuses the two; there are no indicators for metaphors. Simile and metaphor both work on sensory level.

Other examples of metaphor: The sentence “Merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks contains a metaphor which transfers the timing function of the clock to the larks. Dickinson devises an unusual metaphor in the opening line of her poem # 1068: “Further in Summer than the Birds.” Here birds are used as if they were a point in the continuum of time, a phase of the seasonal cycle. Sometimes metaphors are subtle to detect. Francis Bacon writes the metaphor about books in his “Of Studies”: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Conceit

Q6: Read the poem, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne, and think why this poem is a good example of conceit?

A6: The two lovers’ souls are compared to the legs of a compass. A conceit is a comparison whose ingenuity is more striking than its justness and that a comparison becomes a conceit when we are made to concede likeness while being strongly conscious of unlikeness.

Q7: According to the explanation of the poem by John Donne, what’s the relation between a conceit and a metaphor or simile?

A7: A conceit is a metaphor or simile that is made elaborate (far-fetched), often extravagant. The difference between a conceit and a metaphor or simile is largely of degree. A metaphor or simile appeals mainly to the reader’s five senses and is easier to understand; a conceit appeals mainly to the reader’s intellect and so is difficult to comprehend. A conceit may strike the reader as weird at first glance, but proves appropriate in the end.

教师给出以下术语定义，学生小组自学理解后根据定义完成第四部分作品以及相应修辞的配对。

Conceit；Personification；Symbol; paradox; Ambiguity; Onomatopoeia

1. A conceit is a metaphor or simile that is made elaborate (far-fetched), often extravagant. Some would use the term to mean any fanciful poetic image.

2. Personification, in literature is a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are given human qualities or are represented as possessing human form. Personification is found frequently in poetry as well as in fables. By transferring human qualities to the things otherwise without, the poet transfers human emotions as well.

3. A symbol is an index that points to or represents something else. A symbol is usually a material object used to represent something abstract.

4. A paradox may be a statement or situation that appears to be self-contradictory or contradictory to the common sense but is in fact valid or true.

5. Ambiguity, or fallacy of ambiguity, is a word, phrase, or statement which contains more than one meaning. Ambiguous words or statements lead to vagueness and confusion, and shape the basis for instances of unintentional humor.

6. Onomatopoeia, pronounced on-uh-mat-uh–pee–uh, is defined as a word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting.

Q8: What’s the function of personification?

A8: Personification is not merely a decorative device, but serves the purpose of giving deeper meanings to literary texts. It adds vividness to expressions, as we always look at the world from a human perspective. Writers and poets rely on personification to bring inanimate things to life, so that their nature and actions are understood in a better way. Because it is easier for us to relate to something that is human, or which possesses human traits, its use encourages us to develop a perspective that is new as well as creative.

Q9: “Why is paradox used when a message can be conveyed in a straightforward and simple manner?”

Hint: In poetry, the use of paradox is not confined to mere wit and pleasure; rather, it becomes an integral part of poetic diction. Poets usually make use of paradox to create a remarkable thought or image out of words.

Some types of paradox in poetry are meant to communicate a tone of irony to its readers as well as lead their thoughts to the immediate subject. Paradox in most poems normally strives to create feelings of intrigue and interest in readers’ minds, to make them think deeper and harder to enjoy the real message of the poem.

More examples of onomatopoeia:

Saying, “The gushing stream flows in the forest” is a more meaningful description than just saying, “The stream flows in the forest.” The reader is drawn to hear the sound of a “gushing stream,” which makes the expression more effective.

In addition to the sounds they represent, many onomatopoeic words have developed meanings of their own. For example, the word “whisper” not only represents the wispy or breathy sound of people talking quietly, but also describes the action of people talking quietly.

Common Examples of Onomatopoeia

• The buzzing bee flew away.

• The sack fell into the river with a splash.

• The books fell on the table with a loud thump.

• He looked at the roaring

• The rustling leaves kept me awake.

The different sounds of animals are also considered as examples of onomatopoeia. You will recognize the following sounds easily:

• Meow

• Moo

• Neigh

• Tweet

• Oink

• Baa

Groups of Onomatopoeic Words

Onomatopoeic words come in combinations, as they reflect different sounds of a single object. For example, a group of words reflecting different sounds of water are: plop, splash, gush, sprinkle, drizzle, and drip.

Similarly, words like growl, giggle, grunt, murmur, blurt, and chatter denote different kinds of human voice sounds.

Moreover, we can identify a group of words related to different sounds of wind, such as swish, swoosh, whiff, whoosh, whizz, and whisper.

Q10: What’s the function of onomatopoeia?

A10: Generally, words are used to tell what is happening. Onomatopoeia, on the other hand, helps readers to hear the sounds of the words they reflect. Hence, the reader cannot help but enter the world created by the poet with the aid of these words. The beauty of onomatopoeic words lies in the fact that they are bound to have an effect on the readers’ senses, whether that effect is understood or not. Moreover, a simple plain expression does not have the same emphatic effect that conveys an idea powerfully to the readers. The use of onomatopoeic words helps create emphasis.