Poetic Imagery and Figuration

When using these tools to analyze poetry, pay attention to their specific effects in the poem, how they contribute to the poem's meaning. Always look for the hidden relation or significance that makes the figurative language meaningful and explain any patterns of figuration that can be found in the poem.

Image: a word or phrase that appeals directly to one or more of the senses; an image means only what it is; it is not figurative.

Figuration: language used indirectly, suggesting something other than or much larger than its literal meaning

A. Simile and Metaphor: a simile is an expressed comparison (using “like” or “as”) between things that are essentially unlike (e.g., “Mary is like a rose”); a metaphor is an implied comparison between things that are essentially unlike (e.g. “John is a lion”). A metaphor means something other than what it is. In a simile, the vehicle and tenor are always directly mentioned in the poem. In a metaphor, the vehicle is always mentioned, but sometimes the tenor is implied rather then mentioned directly.

1. Vehicle: the item that carries the comparison (this item, as itself, is not involved in the poem); e.g., “a rose,” “a lion”
2. Tenor: the item that is intended by the comparison (this item is involved in the poem); e.g., Mary and John
3. Connection: the basis or grounds for making the comparison between these unlike items; e.g., the beauty of Mary and the rose; the aggressiveness and violent nature of John and the lion

B. Metonymy: use of a closely related item, or an attribute of the item, to substitute for the item intended in the poem (e.g., “grave” for death; “crown” for king)

C. Synechdoche: use of a part for the whole (e.g., “sail” for ship)

D. Personification: giving the characteristics of a human being to something that is not a human being; e.g., “Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me” (Emily Dickinson)

E. Symbol: an image (often part of a system of images and figures) that carries a whole range of other meanings. A symbol means what it is and also something more; it is present in the poem as itself but also suggests additional meanings. A symbol is interesting in itself, cannot be separated from what it stands for, and cannot be completely paraphrased or restated. For example, in Vergil's Aeneid, storms are symbolic of Furor (all the passionate, irrational, disorderly forces that disrupt the progression of fate); there are several actual storms in the epic and many metaphoric ones, so that this image accumulates a whole range of meanings associated with Furor. When at the end of the epic the goddess Juno leaves the storm-cloud in which she had been sitting, this symbolically marks her decision no longer to serve as an ally of Furor.