Tropes

• Definition- the substitution of the name of an attribute for that of the thing meant.

• My response: While researching this term, I thought of common sayings we hear often. For example, in "the criminal ran from the law," the word "law" refers to law enforcement officers, and in "we will not disobey the throne," the word "throne" refers to the King or Queen.

• What is this poetic element like? This poetic element is similar to a simile or metaphor, but instead of comparing the subject to another, metonymy refers to the same subject in a more concise way. 

• Examples-

•  The criminal ran from the law. Law represents law enforcement officers whom the criminal ran from.

• We will not disobey the throne. Throne representing a King or Queen figure.

• The famous William Shakesphere saying, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears." Ears represent the audience's attention. 

Definition:

• A Zeugma is a rhetorical figure where one word (typically a verb) is used to control 2+ parts of a sentence, even though the word is typically repeated. Within this, however, there are multiple definitions explained in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics:

  • • Prozeugma: governing word comes first.

    • Mesozeugma: governing word comes in the middle

    • Hypozeugma: governing word comes last

History:

• This comes from Ancient Greek's term ζεῦγμα, zeûgma, which means "yoking together". This term has been used from ancient texts, to classical literature like Homer's The Iliad, to ancient rhetoricians, all the way up until now. 

  • (Found on Wikipedia)

My Response:

• I find this tool intriguing because this is something that I, and most people, use in their daily lives without realizing it has a definition. Realizing that such a common, intuitive way of speaking has a formal label highlights how much rhetoricical elements operate beneath our awareness. Furthermore, zeugma emphasizes our ability to be concise when writing, and that we have the power to avoid repetition.

What is this poetic element like?

• Zeugma is commonly compared to syllepsis because both rely on a single governing word that applies to multiple parts of the sentence. However, zeugma  fits grammatically with everything it is governing. Syllepsis fits grammatically for one part, and figuratively for the other. For example, if I say the syllepsis "He lost his wallet and his temper," he actually lost his wallet, and figuratively lost his temper.

  • This distinction was also mentioned in The Princeton Encycolpedia of Poetry and Poetics.

Example: 

• Prozeugma: 

  • "He was alternately cudgeling his brains and his donkey" 

  • Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

• Mesozeugma:

  • "First the door locked, then his jaw"

  • "Silva Rhetoricae" website

• Hypozeugma:

  • "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"

  • Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Definition:

• A figure of speech that pairs two seemingly contradictory elements; a form of paradox. Paradoxes are seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statements, but which nevertheless prove to be true or well-founded. The oxymoron can provide a feeling of religiosity or spirituality and they can be used to describe ideas which might be hard for people to grasp with normal metaphor. 

History:

• In Greek, it literally translates to "pointedly foolish," which I take to mean intentionally confusing. Francis Petrarch used oxymoron within his writings liberally (as seen in the example poem), and it was a staple figurative language tool of the Baroque era. John Milton in Paradise Lost uses oxymoron to describe the unimaginable glories of God. 

My Response:

• I think the oxymoron is a wonderful tool to use when you want to make your writing more enigmatic, or at least when you want the readers to draw different interpretations from the poem. I really enjoy the complex and extreme images I can create by slapping opposites together. It gives the feeling of infinite possibilities, of a realm we can't fully grasp, or realizing a 2 dimensional spectrum is instead a 4 dimensional hypercube.

What is this poetic element like?

• If figurative language is a spice rack, oxymoron is the cinnamon because it brings out a new dimension to the poem that can't be related to anything else. The feeling, or flavor, of an oxymoron will inherently be self-referential, and it will force the reader to grapple with the counterintuitive idea presented in the poem. Like cinnamon, an oxymoron makes itself known by the simple act of putting together things that shouldn't be.

Example: 

From Petrarch's Canzoniere in the English Renaissance, #134:

To live in hell, and heaven to behold,

To welcome life, and die a living death,

To sweat with heat, and yet be freezing cold,

To grasp at stars, and lie the earth beneath

To tread a maze that never shall have end,

To burn in sighs, and starve in daily tears,

To climb a hill, and never to descend,

Giants to kill, and quake at childish fears;

To pine for food, and watch th’Hesperian tree,

To thirst for drink, and nectar still to draw,

To live accursed whom men hold blest to be,

And weep those wrongs which never creature saw,

If this be love, if love in these be founded,

My heart is love, for these in it are grounded.

Constable, Diana, 1594

• Definition: 

  • An allegory is a narrative, poem, or work in which characters, events, or settings symbolically represent larger ideas, moral truths, or abstract concepts. Allegory operates on two levels: the literal level (the story itself) and the symbolic level (what it represents). Within poetry, allegory can be explicit, like characters embodying virtues or vices, or more subtle, where imagery or events symbolize social, political, or philosophical themes. 

• History: 

  • The term comes from the Greek allēgoria, meaning “speaking otherwise.” Allegory has been a foundational tool in literature since medieval times, where poems often served didactic or moral purposes, such as Pearl or Piers Plowman. During the Renaissance, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene exemplified allegorical poetry by using knights and quests to symbolize virtue, vice, and religious or political themes. Allegory remains relevant in contemporary poetry, often used to explore societal issues, identity, or existential questions. 

• My Response: 

  • I find allegory fascinating because it shows how poets can layer meaning, allowing a single poem to operate on multiple levels. It challenges the reader to look beyond the surface story to interpret the symbolic messages underneath. Even in modern times, a poet can comment on complex issues indirectly through imagery or metaphor.

• What is this poetic element like? 

  • Allegory is often compared to symbolism, since both use one element to represent a broader idea. However, allegory is more structured and sustained across the work—it often governs the whole narrative or poem. Symbolism can exist in a single image, line, or motif without necessarily connecting to the entire work. For example, in Blake’s The Tyger, the tiger functions symbolically, but a full allegory would have multiple elements (characters, events, or settings) all contributing to the larger moral or philosophical message. 

• Examples:

Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Book I, Canto I):

A gentle knight was pricking on the plain,
Yclad in mighty arms and silver shield,
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain,
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
Yet arms till that time did he never wield.

“Little Allegory” by Peter Cooley (2018):

“I’m not the kind of heaven you thought you’d find,”
the sky said, spreading itself across the floor here, in the kitchen,
its gold leaf freaked and split
as it appeared and disappeared and stained
the morning with its radiance.

“And furthermore, you’re not my idea of a prophet or a sage.
But here we are, plain‑speaking in blank verse.
Look, I’m all the transcendence you will find today
if you’ll just step into my shifting path —
light, shadow, light — chiaroscuro, painters call it.”

…no difference between my step and the supernal,
every note a grace note, that deep, high music.

• Definition: 

  • A conceit can be conceived of as an elaborate, intellectually stimulating, unconventional comparison being drawn between two objects within a poem. It is a type of metaphor most often noted for its complex nature and, at times, longform approach with the entire piece serving only the single conceit which is why they are sometimes referred to as an "extended metaphor."

• History: 

  • The conceit, as we know it began in Italy with renowned poet, Francesco Petrarch. The most prominent example of the conceit in his work is in II Canzoniere where he creates a lofty metaphor between the gaze of one's beloved and the sun melting snow. This is where the term "Petrarchan conceit" comes from and it refers to these grand metaphors about someone's love. Later, the metaphysical poets picked up the form and said that the distinction between the two objects does not need to be clear, arguing that the mere fact that you are comparing two striking things is enough to elicit a greater understanding. 

• My Response: 

  • I consider this to be one of the most useful tools in the arsenal of any poet. Having the ability to stretch a single image as far as it can go is one thing, but being able to take two disparate ideas and stretch them into a center point is much more challenging and rewarding. One of the many pursuits of poetry is the production of unique language, subversion of expectations, something your reader will not forget. The conceit is useful in this way because it hinges itself on the complexity of an image and the more vivid and striking it is, the more effective the metaphor will be. 

• What is this poetic element like? 

  • A conceit is a sushi roll: various ingredients tightly packaged together, flavors so evenly spread. When it is cut into eight pieces and served on a platter, lines in a stanza, you pick away at each one, satisfied with every bite, fish and rice, a harmonious matrimony in your mouth, in your mind. 

• Examples:

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18:

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

T.S. Elliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep

• Definition: 

  • The use by a writer or poet of words that give human feelings or qualities to objects, nature, or animals, for example by referring to the "cruel sea". (Online Cambridge Dictionary)

• History: 

  • The term was coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843–60). In some classical poetic forms such as the pastoral elegy, the pathetic fallacy is actually a required convention. In Milton’s “On The Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” all aspects of nature react affectively to the event of Christ’s birth. (Britannica)

  • We can trace back the etymology of the term “pathetic” from greek pathos: relating to the emotions, passion, sufferings in Greek) and “fallacy” from Latin fallacia "deception, deceit, trick, artifice," abstract noun from fallax (genitive fallacis) "deceptive," from fallere "deceive" (etymonline)

• My Response: 

  • It sounds to me like pathetic fallacy is something that refers to the expression of feelings applied to nature for the purpose of deception. However, from what I understand, it simply means attributing a feeling (etc.) to nature, objects, or animals. That said, I find it very useful for creating more interactive experiences with nature between persona, poem, and reader. It is a term related to personification and anthropomorphism. 

• What is this poetic element like? 

  • A conceit is a sushi roll: various ingredients tightly packaged together, flavors so evenly spread. When it is cut into eight pieces and served on a platter, lines in a stanza, you pick away at each one, satisfied with every bite, fish and rice, a harmonious matrimony in your mouth, in your mind. 

• Examples:
  I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.