is an almost perfect example of both the naturalness and the effectiveness of personification. It is natural for the child to say:

"I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass-
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

I saw the different things you did
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all—

O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree
Or just a stronger child than me?

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!" 1

The use of personification alone gives vitality to the child's imaginative conception of the wind here, and it also helps us to put ourselves in the child's place and enjoy the poem Personification is most valuable in thus quickening the imagination. The marvelous lines in Romeo and Juliet, "Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops:"

are fairly alive with their suggestion of coming Dawn. This is also true of Horatio's words in Hamlet:

"But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,

Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill."

1 Reprinted by permission of and arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons.

Antithesis

A figure that is the opposite of the simile is the antithesis. Antithesis is another word for contrast. We all know the effectiveness of putting black against white, the little against the great, the bright and gay against the drab and sullen. The poet uses this device often. Notice the contrast between the first two lines and the last two lines of the following stanza from Byron's The Destruction of Sennacherib. This stanza illustrates, too, the use of simile and antithesis in a single passage.

"Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown.”

This is rather an obvious use of antithesis. Sometimes the poet uses antithesis for less easy but more startling effects. In the following selection from Tennyson's The Last Tournament notice the remarkable contrast between the scene of barbarous massacre in the first lines and the marvelously vivid effect of lonely quiet in the final line.

"Then the knights, who watch'd him, roar'd
And shouted and leapt down upon the fallen,
There trampled out his face from being known,
And sunk his head in mire, and slimed themselves;
Nor heard the King for their own cries, but sprang
Thro' open doors, and swording right and left
Men, women, on their sodden faces, hurl'd
The tables over and the wines, and slew
Till all the rafters rang with woman-yells

And all the pavement stream'd with massacre.
Then echoing yell with yell, they fired the tower,
Which half that autumn night, like the live North,

Made all above it, and a hundred meres

About it, as the water Moab saw

Come round by the east, and out beyond them flush'd
The long low dune and lazy-plunging sea."

The figure of speech called hyperbole is one that is used far too freely in everyday speech. Hyperbole is exaggeration for effect. To say that we laughed till Hyperbole we thought we should die, for instance, is an example of the unnecessary, pointless hyperbole frequent in daily conversation. With the poet, hyperbole is useful for the rush of powerful suggestions it carries with it, as in the following passage from The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire: "So farre, so fast the eygre drave

The heart had hardly time to beat,
Before a shallow seething wave
Sobbed in the grasses at our feet:
The feet had hardly time to flee

Before it brake against the knee,
And all the world was in the sea,"

It is an interesting figure to watch, because it is so very powerful, when effective, and, when ineffective, so very flat.

Apostrophe, like hyperbole, may be easily abused. It is a form of address in which the absent are addressed as though present, the inanimate as though ani- Apostrophe mate, the dead as though living. It occurs frequently in poetry. In the following examples the absent are addressed as though present:

"Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"Come into the garden, Maud,

For the black bat, night, hath flown."

In these, inanimate objects are addressed as though animate:

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean-roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;"

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude."

"Oh, Rome, my country! city of the soul!"

In these, the dead are addressed as though living:

"Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee!"

"O my son Absalom, my son Absalom,
Would God I had died for thee!"

Apostrophe usually represents an excited state of feeling. If it seems the natural overflow of powerful feelings, it is likely to arouse similar feelings in the reader; if it is used carelessly, or too frequently, it defeats its own end.

Irony is a deliberate discrepancy between what one says and what one means by what one says. It is a figure by which we make our words convey the opposite meaning Irony from what they say. It is not, however, used to deceive, but rather to make the meaning more effective. An excellent example of irony is Antony's funeral oration in Julius Cæsar; here he refers to the conspirators as "honorable men" when he wishes the crowd to feel that they are actually traitors. In Guinevere Tennyson makes the little novice praise Guinevere in such a way that the irony of her words is apparent both to the queen and to the reader, although the novice herself is unaware of it. Used in everyday speech irony is sometimes called sarcasm. It is considered an ignoble but powerful weapon.

Metonymy means change of name. In this figure the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely asMetonymy sociated with it in our minds. Metonymy is almost as common as metaphor in our daily speech. When we say that we read Shakespeare instead of his books we are substituting the author for his works. When we say that gray hairs should be respected, we mean that old age should be respected; and we are substituting one phrase for another associated with it. When we say the kettle boiled, or his

head whirled, or he writes a beautiful hand, or the pen is mightier than the sword, we are using metonymy. Metonymy combines brevity with concreteness and is therefore of great value in poetry. Usually it passes unnoticed. When Tennyson says,

"And called for flesh and wine to feed his spears,"

"About his feet

A voice clung sobbing,"

he is using metonymy which adds brevity and suggestiveness to his lines.

Epigram originally meant an inscription on a monument. As such inscriptions were usually short, compressing as much as possible into a few words, epigram Epigram

has come to mean any saying in prose or poetry which says something true or wise in a brief pointed manner. Cæsar's "Veni, vidi, vici" is a famous illustration. Most poetry is not primarily epigrammatic, but epigrams occur in poetry fairly often.

Figures of

speech only
a means to an

end

Figures of speech are of small consequence in themselves. Their value in poetry cannot be learned by merely cataloguing them. It is not enough to recognize a figure of speech when you see it. Figures of speech are used for a purpose; unless they fulfill that purpose they have no value. If they do not increase the suggestive power of a passage by throwing an unexpected light on its significance, by making it more vivid, by increasing its emotional appeal, or by adding clearness, force, or beauty, the poem is better off without them.

HOW THE POET EXPRESSES HIMSELF THROUGH SOUND

"The room was so still that the tick of the clock was the only sound to be heard except the voice that was holding