FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

Figures of speech are intentional deviations from the ordinary form, or literal meaning of words, or the usual construction of sentences. They are largely used by poets, partly as a necessity, and partly as ornaments. There are three kinds of such licenses: (1) Figures of Orthography, (2) Figures of Syntax, (3) Figures of Rhetoric.

FIGURES OF ORTHOGRAPHY.

These are deviations from the ordinary spelling or pronunciation of words, their object being chiefly to shorten or lengthen a verse by a syllable.

(1) Elision is the omission of a letter or syllable either at the beginning, middle, or end of a word; e. g. 'neath, 'gan; lov'st, e'er; th', &c.

(2) Prosthesis is prefixing an expletive syllable to a word; as, yclad, beweep.

(3) Paragoge adds a syllable to the end of a word: this is rarely found but in old authors; as, withouten.

(4) Synæresis is the merging of two syllables into one; as, alien, we'll.

(5) Diæresis is the separation of a diphthong into two sounds; as, aëronaut, zoölogy.

(6) Tmesis is the insertion of a word between the parts of a compound; as, to us ward: on which side soever.

(7) An Archaism is an old word or expression used for quaintness' sake, especially in imitations of old authors; e. g. wis, for know; e'en or eyne, for eyes; beeves, for bullocks.

FIGURES OF SYNTAX.

These are deviations from ordinary forms of expression, or the strict grammatical structure of sentences. Many of them would be solecisms in prose; but in poetry they are

allowable, in order to meet the necessities of metre, or to add variety and elegance to the composition.

(1) Ellipsis. This is omission of words which are necessary to complete the construction, though not to convey the meaning; as—

Cold, cold, my girl?

Othello.

What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

Macbeth.

Aposiopesis is the suppression of the consequence to be supplied

by the hearer's mind; e. g.

If she sustain him and his hundred knights

When I have shown the unfitness-How now, Oswald?

They fell together all as by consent;

Lear.

They dropped as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
Worthy Sebastian? O, what might ?-No more:
And yet, methinks, I see it in thy face,

What thou shouldst be: the occasion speaks thee; and
My strong imagination sees a crown

Dropping upon thy head.

Asyndeton is the omission of conjunctions.

Tempest.

(2) Pleonasm is the introduction of superfluous words in order to strengthen the expression, or to keep the mind dwelling on the thought; e. g. The sea-girt isle; What a length of tail behind! There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

Now all these things are over-Yes, all thy pretty ways

Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays.

Macaulay.

The very head and front of my offending

Hath this extent, no more.

Nor to these idle orbs does day appear,

Othello.

Or sun, or moon, or stars, throughout the year,

Or man, or woman.

Milton.

(3) Enallage is the use of one part of speech for an

other; as,

They fall successive, and successive rise.

Pope.

Byron.

The idols are broke in the temple of Baal.

(4) Hyperbaton is the transposition of words; e.g.

Idle after dinner, in his chair,

Sat a farmer, ruddy, fat, and fair.

Tennyson.

From morn

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,

A summer's day.

Milton.

(5) Anacoluthon is the want of proper sequence in the construction of a compound sentence; e. g.

My name is Edgar, and thy father's son.

These are deviations from the ordinary meaning or application of words, very frequently occurring in poetry, on account of the vigour and beauty they give to the language.

When we speak of a staff as a walking stick, or of a kettle boiling on the fire, we use those words in their literal meaning; but when we call bread the staff of life, or say of a man in a passion that he is boiling with rage, we use them figuratively. The earliest use of figurative language was, no doubt, merely in the application of the qualities of non-sensible objects to sensible ones, such as in speaking of a warm heart, a hardened sinner, a family swollen with pride; or in attributing actions to inanimate objects, as in the ocean sleeping after a storm, or of a mountain lifting its hoary head to the skies. This mode of speech, appealing so much to the imagination, giving life as it were to the material world around us, so full of energy and beauty, naturally became the favourite one with poets in all ages; and, at length, has become so extended in its application that, not only in literature, but in ordi

nary conversation we are constantly making use of it. It will be seen as we go further into the matter, that many of these figures are of so mixed a character that it is often difficult to class them with precision: metaphor and personification, metonomy and synecdoche, hendiadys and pleonasm are of this kind. The principal rhetorical figures are,—

(1) Simile. This is a formal comparison instituted between two objects, which is generally introduced by like, as, or so; e. g.

Thine eye is like the star of eve,

And sweet thy voice as seraph's song.

Coleridge.

And as a bird each fond endearment tries,
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter worlds and led the way.

For pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like a snow-flake on the river,
A moment white, then gone for ever.

Goldsmith.

Burns.

(2) Metaphor expresses the resemblance between objects without the sign like or as: it asserts that one thing is another in such and such respects. This is the most commonly used of all the figures of speech, as it is generally nothing more than the application of the attributes and actions of one thing directly to another. It often borders on personification.1

'In distinguishing metaphor from personification, it must be premised, that many words have acquired a metaphorical meaning by their being so commonly used to attribute the qualities of living beings to dead objects, and that therefore the figure lies more in the attribute than in the thing. Thus, in such expressions as the howling wind, the moonbeams dancing on the waters, we do not attribute personality to these objects, but merely assert the identity of the impressions which they, as well as living things, make upon our senses under similar circumstances. On the other hand, in personification we regard the object, for the time being, as a living reality; we invest it with a personality, assign it a gender, treat it as we should do a human being, i. e. as a proper noun, and give it a capital letter. (If the capital letter was always used, the difficulty would be at an end.)

Hope is the lover's staff.

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

See how the golden groves around me smile.

The children of the autumnal whirlwind bore,
In wanton sport, those bright leaves whose decay,
Red, yellow, or ethereally pale,

Rival the pride of summer.

'Tis the haunt

Of every gentle wind whose breath can teach
The wilds to love tranquillity.

Shelley.

Mixed Metaphors sometimes occur even in our best authors: e.g.

To take arms against a seal of troubles.

I bridle in my struggling muse with pain,
That longs to launch into a bolder strain.

Hamlet.

Addison.

(3) Allegory is a continuation of metaphors into a connected narrative; a series of fictitious events designed to represent and illustrate important realities. The parables of our Lord are the finest allegories that were ever uttered. The better kind of fables constitute another type of alle

In our own language Spenser's Faerie Queene, • Pilgrim's Progress, Addison's Vision of Mirza in

serve the metaphor it has been proposed to read siege for