Allusion
The title of Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album, To Pimp a Butterfly, is an allusion to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was released in 1960
In his 2021 song, "amari", J.Cole says:
This is an allusion to a poem written by Tupac Shakur (1999):
In Kanye West's Can't Tell Me Nothing he says "Y'all homies lookin' like, why God?/When they reminisce over you, my God". This line is an allusion to a song by Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth entitled "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.).
Definition
allusion |əˈlo͞oZHən|
noun
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference: an allusion to Shakespeare | a classical allusion.
• the practice of making such references, esp. as an artistic device.
ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (denoting a pun, metaphor, or parable): from French, or from late Latin allusio(n-), from the verb alludere (see allude) .
Examples
Martin Luther King, Jr., alluded to the Gettysburg Address in starting his "I Have a Dream" speech by saying 'Five score years ago..."; his hearers were immediately reminded of Abraham Lincoln's "Four score and seven years ago", which opened the Gettysburg Address. King's allusion effectively called up parallels in two historic moments.
Season 5 Ep. 4 o Family Guy is entitled "Saving Private Brian. This is an allusion to the movie "Saving Private Ryan"
In Act 1 of Romeo & Juliet, Romeo makes an allusion to Greek mythology by saying, " she hath Dian's wit." In this line he is making a reference to Dian, the Greek Goddess of Chastity.
Allusions in Art
"Graveyard Guernica" by Ron English is an allusion to Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"
"Graveyard Guernica" by Ron English
"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso
W.H. Auden's Allusion to The Fall of Icarus
Auden's poem makes several allusions to Brueghel's famous painting, "The Fall of Icarus."
Musee des Beaux Arts
W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Pieter Brueghel, The Fall of Icarus
Oil-tempera, 29 inches x 44 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.
See also:
Allusions to Shakespeare
Gnomeo & Juliet makes many subtle references to William Shakespeare. For example, a newspaper ad shows a house for sale in "Stratford"...this is an allusion to Shakespeare's place of birth.
Gnomeo & Juliet also makes many allusions to the works of William Shakespeare.
The scene below, for example, is an allusion to Hamlet's famous speech that begins, "To be, or not to be. That is the question."
Allusion to Dead Poets Society (and several other Robin Williams movies)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Allusion to E.T.
If you've seen E.T., you'll recognize this clip as an allusion to a very famous scene.
If you haven't seen E.T., here's the original scene
W.H. Auden's Allusion to The Fall of Icarus
Auden's poem makes several allusions to Brueghel's famous painting, "The Fall of Icarus."
Musee des Beaux Arts
W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Pieter Brueghel, The Fall of Icarus
Oil-tempera, 29 inches x 44 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.
