The Grammar of Poetry

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The Grammar of Poetry

• Don Nilsen and
• Alleen Nilsen

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Types of Metaphors

• Live (Literary) Metaphors
• Dead Metaphors and Idioms (Alive in a Target
  Language)
• Conceptual Metaphors (e.g. LIFE IS A JOURNEY)
• Educational Metaphors (An atom is a miniature
  solar system)
• Ogden Richards Thing, Word, Concept

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Life is a Journey Entails

• The person is a traveler.
• His purposes are destinations.
• Achievement of purposes are routes.
• Difficulties are road blocks
• Counselors are guides.
• Progress is the distance traveled.
• Therefore time is space.
• Progress is measured by landmarks.
• Choices in life are crossroads.

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The Road Not Takenby Robert Frost

• Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
• I took the one less traveled by,
• And that has made all the difference.

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Schemes vs. Tropes

• Schemes and Tropes are both poetic devices.
• Schemes are superficial things like rhyme, eye
  rhyme, slant rhyme, end rhyme, internal rhyme,
  alliteration, assonance, scansion, etc.
• Tropes are more significant. The master tropes
  are
• METAPHOR (AND SIMILE) A is (like) B
• METONYMY A is associated with B
• IRONY A is unexpectedly related to B
• SYNECDOCHE A contains both B and C
• Double Entendre, Parody, Paradox, Satire,
  Sarcasm, Innuendo, synesthesia, etc. are also
  tropes.

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Emily DickensonLife, Death and TimeSchemes
(Surface Structure) vs. Tropes (Deep Structure)

• Because I could not stop for Death
• He kindly stopped for me
• The Carriage held but Ourselves
• And Immortality. (JOURNEY)
• We slowly droveHe knew no haste
• And I had put away
• My labor and my leisure too.
• For his Civility (JOURNEY)

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• We passed the School, where Children strove
• At recessin the Ring
• We passed the Fields of gazing Grain
• We passed the setting Sun-- (LIFE)
• Or ratherHe passed Us
• The Dews drew quivering and chill
• For only Gossamer, my Gown
• My Tippetonly Tulle (SYNESTHESIA)

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• We paused before a House that seemed
• A Swelling of the Ground
• The Roof was scarcely visible
• The Cornicein the Ground-- (GRAVEYARD)
• Since thentis Centuriesand yet
• Feels shorter than the Day
• I first surmised the Horses Heads
• Were toward Eternity.

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Twenty-Third PsalmBible

• He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
  his names sake. Yea, though I walk through the
  valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
  evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff
  they comfort me. Surely goodness and mercy
  shall follow me all the days of my life and I
  will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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Dylan Thomas

• Do not go gentle into that good night,
• Old age should burn and rave at close of day
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
• Because their words had forked no lightning they
• Do not go gentle into that good night.

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• Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
• Their frail deeds might have danced in the green
  bay.
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
• And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
• Do not go gentle into that good night.

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• Grave men, near death, who see with blinding
  sight
• Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• And you, my father, there on the sad height,
• Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I
  pray.
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Analogues that Highlight Hide Information

• LIFE IS A JOURNEY
• LIFE IS A YEAR
• LIFE IS A DAY
• LIFE IS A PLAY (e.g. Frank Sinatras song which
  ends with a final curtain)
• LIFE IS A FIRE

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William Shakespeare

• Put out the light and then put out the light.
• from Othello
• To be or not to be.
• To die to sleep--
• To sleep? Perchance to dream! Ay, theres the
  rub
• For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
• (Hamlet)

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Sonnet Seventy-ThreeBy William
Shakespeare)SEASON

• That time of year thou mayst in me behold.
• When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang.
• Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
• Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds
  sang.

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Day

• In me thou seest the twilight of such day
• As after sunset fadeth in the west
• Which by and by black night doth take away,
• Deaths second self that seals up all in rest.

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Fire

• In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
• That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
• As the deathbed whereon it must expire
• Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

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Love and Death

• This thou perceivst, which makes thy love more
  strong.
• To love that well, which thou must leave ere
  long.

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William Shakespeare

• All the worlds a stage,
• And all the men and women merely players.
• They have their exits and their entrances
• And one man in his time plays many parts.
• (As you Like It)
• Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player
• That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
• And then is heard no more.
• (Macbeth)

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Metaphor vs. Metonymy

• Metaphor is mapping Metonymy is substituting.
  Therefore
• In metaphor, there are two conceptual domains,
  and one is understood in terms of the other.
• In metaphor , a whole schematic structure (with
  two or more entities) is mapped onto another
  whole schematic structure.
• In metaphor, the logic of the source-domain
  structure is mapped onto the logic of the
  target-domain structure.

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• Metonymy involves only one conceptual domain. A
  metonymic mapping occurs within a single domain,
  not across domains.
• Metonymy is used primarily for reference via
  metonymy, one can refer to one entity in a schema
  by referring to another entity in the same
  schema.
• In metonymy, one entity in a schema is taken as
  standing for one other entity in the same schema,
  or for the schema as a whole.

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Objectivist (scientific) Claim

• George Lakoff says that Objective reality
  consists of states of affairs in the world
  independent of any human conceptualization or
  understanding.
• To be more precise, the world comes structured in
  a way that is objectiveindependent of any minds.
• The world as objectively structured includes
  objects, properties of those objects, relations
  holding among those objects, and categories of
  those objects, properties and relations.
• (i.e. Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs)

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Truth

• THE OBJECTIVIST CLAIM
• George Lakoff says that conventional expressions
  in a language designate aspects of an objective,
  mind-free reality.
• Therefore, a statement must objectively be either
  true or false, depending on whether the objective
  world accords with the statement.

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Idealized Cognitive Models
REAL THINGS Day Month Season Year MADE-UP THINGS? Second Minute Hour 8-Hour Day 12-Hour Day Week Weekend Holiday Work Week Decade Century Millennium
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Charles Fillmores Example

• Orientation of a Cube six sides
• Box top, bottom, four sides
• Dresser top, bottom, front, back, right side,
  left side
• NOTE Left and right are from our point of
  view, not the dressers point of view

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Western vs. EasternThought

• Aristotelian black-white, good-evil
• Vs. Zen Bhudism

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Metaphor Theories

• STRONG POSITION Every aspect of every concept is
  completely understood via metaphor.
• WEAK POSITION Every linguistic expression
  expresses a concept that is at least in some
  aspect, understood via metaphor.

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The Great Chain of Being

• God
• gods
• Humans
• Animals
• Plants
• Complex Objects
• Computers
• Cars
• Natural Physical Things
• Intangible Things (air, faith, hope, ideas, etc.)

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Personification of Animals

• In American Culture
• Lions are courageous and noble.
• Foxes are clever.
• Dogs are loyal, and dependable.
• Cats are fickle land independent.
• Wolves are cruel and murderous.
• Gorillas are aggressive and violent.

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Analogues Life, Day, Season
Birth Youth Adolescence Maturity Old Age Death Daybreak Morning Afternoon Evening Twilight Setting Sun Night Spring Summer Autumn/Fall Winter
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Analogues Journey, Play, Plant
Start Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Destination Opening Curtain Act 1, Scene 1 Act 1, Scene 2 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5 Closing Curtain Bloom/Blossom Green (not ripe) Flowering/Fruitful Ripe Harvest (Grim Reaper)

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Analogues Colors, Fire (touch), Sounds
Pastels (pink, lavender, baby blue) Bright (green, red, orange, yellow) Dark (grey, brown, black) Warm (kindling, sparks) Hot (enflamed, burning) Cool (embers) Cold (ashes) Pastoral Scherzo, Jig Dirge, Requiem