Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

PART IV

B

FIGURES OF SPEECH

ECAUSE of the apparent lack of understanding of the average graduate of high schools, seminaries, and colleges, I take pleasure in submitting the chapters on Figures of Speech and Prosody. There is no question as to the usefulness to the student of the Spoken Word of these two important subjects, and while every graduate of the above institutions may have considerable knowledge of these subjects, yet I find them, with very few exceptions, insufficient for mastery in our specific line of work.

An architect in order to be successful in presenting his plans to the master builder, must know considerable, in fact, all about the construction of a building; so with the interpreter or the teacher of interpretation of the Spoken Word, he or she should have an actual knowledge of the matter in hand in order to give a lucid and complete knowledge to the auditor or the pupil. In fact one will never thoroughly understand Figures of Speech and Prosody until they are put into practical use. Great stress is placed upon this part in the extemporaneous speaking, debating, and the interpretative classes; also in the class of poetry and short story writing, in which classes we find through actual use and application of the principles laid down in this book, that the students become creative speakers and writers of the Spoken Word. In connection with this subject, I would advise students to consult Webster's International Dictionary; also to

have for reference several good rhetorics and language books.

Figures that are based on resemblance are: Simile, Metaphor, and Allegory. Personification and Apostrophe, to a greater or less extent, are also suggested by resemblance.

I. Simile

A simile gives a clear and lucid conception of an obscure object or action, by comparing it with something well known to the reader, and, by presenting some phase of the thing in a new and unexpected light, it not infrequently surprises and pleases. Examples:

1. The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. Sam. XVII.

2. I have compared one with the other, though very unlike, like all similes.

Byron.

3. The feeling of unhappiness covered him as water covers a log.

4. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep.

5.

It came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving color.

II. Metaphor

Kipling.

The fact that a metaphorical figure is founded upon the resemblance which one object bears to another, allies it very closely to a simile; that is, a metaphor (as the

International Dictionary says) imaginatively identifies one object with another, and ascribes to the first the qualities of the second; whereas the simile declares that A is like B, the metaphor assumes that A is B. A metaphor may usually be expanded into a simile, and a simile may be condensed into a metaphor, as: "Phil Sheridan fought like a lion," contains a simile. "He was a lion in the fight," contains a metaphor.

The metaphor, of all figures of speech, comes nearest to painting, as it enables one to clothe at will the most abstract ideas with life, form, color, and motion. Examples:

1. The Spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.

2. The ship plows the sea.

3. He is a lion in a fight.

4. The sunshine filters through the leaves.

5. "Israel is a vine brought from Egypt."

III. Allegory

Proverbs.

Allegory is the description of one thing under the image of another, a sort of extended metaphor. "An allegory is like two trains (of thought) running in the same direction on parallel tracks." The allegory differs from the metaphor in this respect: in the metaphor both subjects are mentioned, the one to be illustrated as well as the one that is employed as a figure to illustrate it, while in allegory, the subject should never be mentioned. Allegory usually extends through several sentences, and sometimes

« AnteriorContinuar »