Figurative Language

1
Figurative Language

• The Language of Literature

2
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
3
Literary texts

• A work of literature is always a coded text,
• in parts it may use figurative language (figures
  of speech or tropes),
• and as a whole it always communicates ideas
  different from its literal meaning.
• Therefore the student of literature must learn
  the various techniques of decoding literary texts.

4
Figurative language

• Language which uses figures of speech for
  example, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, simile,
  alliteration, hyperbole, etc.
• Figurative language must be distinguished from
  literal language.

5
Literal language Language use that takes the
meaning of words in their primary and
non-figurative sense, as in literal
interpretation.
6
Literal language vs literary language
7
Literal / Literary

• Literary of, relating to, or having the
  characteristics of letters, humane learning, or
  literature
• Literal adhering to fact or to the ordinary
  construction or primary meaning of a term of
  expression
• From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

8
Literal / Figurative

• Its heavily raining / pouring with rain / the
  rain is pouring
• It is raining cats and dogs / the rain is coming
  down in buckets
• Youre a pretty sight You look awful
• Youve got slightly wet, didnt you? Youve got
  drenched with rain

9
Speaking figuratively

• you say less than what you mean
• or more than what you mean
• or the opposite of what you mean
• or something other than what you mean

10
Figurative speech

• Broadly defined
• Any way of saying something other than the
  ordinary (literal) way.
• (From the antiquity on rhetoricians have defined
  over 250 separate figures.)
• Narrowly defined
• A way of saying one thing and meaning another.
  Language that cannot be taken literally.

11
Figures of speech / Tropes

• Figures of speech tropes
• Trope (Greek turn)
• denotes any rhetorical or figurative device

12
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
13
Philip Larkin(19221985)
14
1 The trees are coming into leaf 2 Like
something almost being said 3 The recent buds
relax and spread, 4 Their greenness is a kind of
grief. 5 Is it that they are born again 6 And
we grow old? No, they die too, 7 Their yearly
trick of looking new 8 Is written down in rings
of grain.   9 Yet still the unresting castles
thresh 10 In fullgrown thickness every May.
11 Last year is dead, they seem to say,
12 Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
15
The Trees

• 2 Simile
• 5-6 Rhetorical question
• 5-6, 6-7 Contrast, antithesis
• 9 Metaphor
• 11 Personification
• 12 Repetition (increase, crescendo)
• 4, 8, 10 Alliteration

16
1 The trees are coming into leaf 2 Like
something almost being said 3 The recent buds
relax and spread, 4 Their greenness is a kind of
grief. 5 Is it that they are born again 6 And
we grow old? No, they die too, 7 Their yearly
trick of looking new 8 Is written down in rings
of grain.   9 Yet still the unresting castles
thresh 10 In fullgrown thickness every May.
11 Last year is dead, they seem to say,
12 Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
17
1 The trees are coming into leaf 2 Like
something almost being said 3 The recent buds
relax and spread, 4 Their greenness is a kind of
grief. 5 Is it that they are born again 6 And
we grow old? No, they die too, 7 Their yearly
trick of looking new 8 Is written down in rings
of grain.   9 Yet still the unresting castles
thresh 10 In fullgrown thickness every May.
11 Last year is dead, they seem to say,
12 Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
18
The Trees

• 2, 4, 5 Uncertainty, vagueness,
• hesitance, instability (fear)
• 7 Turning point
• 11 Uncertainty (hope)

19
A figure of speech

• An expression
• extending language beyond its literal meaning,
• either pictorially through metaphor, simile,
• allusion, personification, and the like,
• or rhetorically through repetition, balance,
• antithesis and the like.
• A figure of speech is also called a trope.
• The Harper Handbook to Literature, ed. Northrop
  Frye, Sheridan Baker, George Perkins. New York
  Harper Row, 1984

20
Metaphor

• All the world's a stage,And all the men and
  women merely playersThey have their exits and
  their entrances
• William Shakespeare As You Like It, Act Two,
  Scene 7
• The world is not literally a stage. But
  Shakespeare figuratively asserts that the world
  is a stage thus reveals the mechanics of the
  world and the behaviour of the people within it.

21
Metaphor

• I. A. Richards in The Philosophy of
  Rhetoric (1937) describes a metaphor as having
  two parts
• the tenor
• the vehicle.
• The tenor is the subject to which attributes are
  ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose
  attributes are borrowed.
• In the above example "the world" is
  the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle "men and
  women" forms part of the tenor and "players" of
  the vehicle.

22
Tenor and vehicle

• tenor the purport or general drift of thought
• regarding the subject of a metaphor
• vehicle the image which embodies the tenor
• tenor the concept, idea, new element
• vehicle the image to illuminate the tenor

23
Metaphor

• All the world's a stage,And all the men and
  women merely playersThey have their exits and
  their entrances

24
Figurative language

• Metaphor (Greek 'to transfer to carry over)
• How to spot metaphor textual and contextual
  signals
• Metaphor and simile in poetry
• figurative language with a purpose
• The effects of metaphor denotation / connotation
  denotation what is referred to
• connotation associations, connecting images,
  ideas, moods, etc.

25
Figures of speech metaphor, simile

• Used as means of comparing things that are
  essentially unlike.
• Figures of speech in which one thing is described
  in terms of another.
• Metaphor the comparison is implied, implicit,
  i.e. the figurative term is substituted for or
  identified with the literal term
• Simile the comparison is expressed, explicit
  (like, as)

26
Metaphor and simile

• Metaphor
• "O Rose, thou art sick. (William Blake)
• No sign of comparison vehicle stands for tenor
• Simile
• O my luve's like a red, red rose (Robert Burns)
• luve tenor red, red rose vehicle
• like grammatical indicator of similarity

27
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
28
Conceit

• An extended metaphor (conceit, concetto)
• establishes a principal subject (comparison)
• and subsidiary subjects (comparisons).
• Used extensively by English metaphysical
• poets of the seventeenth century.

29
John Donne(15721631)
30
A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING excerpt Our
two souls therefore, which are one,     Though I
must go, endure not yet A breach, but an
expansion,     Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so     As stiff
twin compasses are two Thy soul, the fix'd
foot, makes no show     To move, but doth, if
th' other do. And though it in the centre sit,
    Yet, when the other far doth roam,It leans,
and hearkens after it,     And grows erect, as
that comes home.
31
Compasses George Wither 1635
32
Catachresis

• A mixed metaphor (catachresis) is one that leaps
  from one
• identification to a second identification
  inconsistent with the
• first. It can be deliberate or unintentional.
• Example
• To be, or not to be, that is the
  questionWhether 'tis nobler in the mind to
  sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous
  fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of
  troubles,And by opposing end them?
• (Shakespeare Hamlet, Act III, Scene I)

33
Cliché

• A dead metaphor (cliché) is one in which
• the sense of a transferred image is absent.
• Example "to grasp a concept" uses physical
• action as a metaphor for understanding.
• Dead metaphors normally go unnoticed.

34
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
35
Carol Ann Duffy(1955)Sit at Peace (from The
Other Country, 1990)
36
When they gave you them to shell and you sat on
the back-doorstep, opening the small green
envelopes with your thumb, minding the queues of
peas, you were sitting at peace. Sit at peace,
sit at peace, all summer.   When Muriel Purdy,
embryonic cop, thwacked the back of your knees
with a bamboo-cane, mouth open, soundless in a
cave of pain, you ran to your house, a greeting
wean, to be kept in and told once again.   Nip
was a dog. Fluff was a cat. They sat at peace on
a coloured-in mat, so why couldnt you?
Sometimes your questions were stray snipes over
no-mans land, bringing sharp hands and the order
you had to obey. Sit   At Peace! Jigsaws you
couldnt do or dull stamps didnt want to collect
arrived with the frost. You would rather stand
with your nose to the window, clouding the
strange blue view with your restless
breath.   But the day you fell from the Parachute
Tree, they came from nowhere running, carried you
in to a quiet room you were glad of. A long
silent afternoon, dreamlike. A voice saying
peace, sit at peace, sit at peace.
37
Imagery

• Representation through language of sense
  experience
• Image
• - visual imagery (mental image)
• - auditory imagery (sound)
• - olfactory imagery (smell)
• - gustatory imagery (taste)
• - tactile imagery (touch)
• - organic imagery (internal sensation, hunger,
  fatigue)
• - kinesthetic imagery (movement, tension in the
  muscles)

38
Further figures of speech

• Synaesthesia /s?nis?iz??/ the mixing of
  sensations, the concurrent appeal to more than
  one sense (e.g. hearing a colour, seeing a smell)
• Personification give the attributes of a human
  being to an animal, an object or a concept
• Metonymy /m?t?n?mi/ the use of something
  closely related for the thing actually meant
• Synecdoche /s?n?kd?ki/ the use of the part for
  the whole

39
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
40
Metonymy / Synecdoche

• Metonymy substitute naming an associated
• idea names the item
• The pen is mightier than the sword.
• Synecdoche a part stands for the whole or the
• whole for a part
• Listen, you've got to come take a look at my new
• set of wheels. (One refers to a vehicle in terms
  of
• some of its parts, "wheels.)

41
Even further figures of speech

• Symbol something that means more than what it
• is.
• Allegory a narrative or description that has a
• second meaning, with more emphasis on the
• ulterior meaning than on the surface story.
• Unlike metaphors, it involves a system of related
• correspondences.
• Unlike symbols, it puts less emphasis on the
  images for their own sake

42
Allegory / Symbol

• A narrative that serves as an extended metaphor.
• Allegories are written in the form of fables,
  parables,
• poems, stories, and almost any other style or
  genre.
• The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a
  story that
• has characters, a setting, as well as other types
  of
• symbols, that have both literal and figurative
• meanings. The difference between an allegory and
• a symbol is that an allegory is a complete
  narrative
• that conveys abstract ideas to get a point
  across,
• while a symbol is a representation of an idea or
• concept that can have a different meaning
  throughout
• a literary work.

43
Examples of allegory

• Platos Cave allegory (The Republic, Book VII)
• Aesops Fables
• Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy
• Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene
• George Orwells Animal Farm

44
Allegorical figures inThomas Grays
(1716-1771)Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard(excerpt)

• Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
• Their homely joys, and destiny obscure
• Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
• The short and simple annals of the Poor.
• The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
• And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
• Awaits alike th' inevitable hour-
• The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

45
Gray cont.

• Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault
• If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
• Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted
  vault
• The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
• Can storied urn or animated bust
• Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
• Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
• Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

46
The portrait of Thomas Grayby John Giles Eccart
(1747-1748)
47
Southwell Minster
48
Carvings in the Chapter Houseof Southwell Minster
49
Carving in the Chapter House
50
Figures of speech easy to confuse

• Image, metaphor, and symbol are sometimes
  difficult
• to distinguish.
• An image means only what it is.
• A metaphor means something other than what it is.
• A symbol means what it is and something more,
  too.
• It functions literally and figuratively at the
  same time.

51
Rhetorical figures

• simple repetition /'r?p?'t???n/
• parallelism /'pær?l??l?z?m, -l?'l?z-/
• antithesis /æn't???s?s/
• climax /'kla?mæks/
• hyperbole /ha?'p?rb?li/ 
• apostrophe /?'p?str?fi/
• irony /'a?r?ni, 'a??r-/ 
• Find examples for each in the quotation from
• Alexander Popes An Essay on Man (1732-1734)

52
Repetition
53
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
54
The Trees

• Lines 1, 9 Repetition
• Lines 2, 11 Repetition
• Repetition of words, phrases, lines
• Literal (verbatim) repetitions
• Synonymous repetitons

55
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
56
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
57
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
58
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
59
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
60
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
61
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
62
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
63
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

• 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.
•  
• Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
• Their frail deeds might have danced in a 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.
•  
• 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.

64
Dylan Thomas(19141953)
65
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.   Good men, the last
wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds
might have danced in a 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.   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 that 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.
66
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.   Good men, the last
wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds
might have danced in a 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.   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 that 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.
67
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.   Good men, the last
wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds
might have danced in a 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.   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 that 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.
68
Further rhetorical figures

• Paradox an apparent contradiction that is
• nevertheless somehow true
• Hyperbole (overstatement) exaggeration,
• adding emphasis to what is really meant
• Understatement saying less than what is
• meant

69
ParadoxEmily Dickinson1732

• My life closed twice before its close
• It yet remains to see
• If Immortality unveil
• A third event to me
• So huge, so hopeless to conceive
• As these that twice befell.
• Parting is all we know of heaven,
• And all we need of hell.

70
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
71
Irony

• a trope, a non-literal use of language like
  metaphor, metonymy, etc, also can be conceived as
  a rhetorical figure
• a type of tone, a particular way of
  speaking/writing, a matter of style,
• can be widespread in text
• (unlike metaphors which are usually discrete
  parts of text)

72
ParadoxJohn Donne The Legacy(excerpt)

• When last I died (and, dear, I die
• As often as from thee I go),
• Though it be but an hour ago,
• And lovers' hours be full eternity,
• I can remember yet, that I
• Something did say, and something did bestow
• Though I be dead, which sent me, I should be
• Mine own executor and legacy.

73
Irony

• ironic meaning WE have to construct
• DIFFERENCE between apparent meaning and true
  meaning
• the text as a whole or a large part of it is
  unreliable if taken literally
• an implied (vs explicit) interpretation is true
• Example
• difference between text and situation
• WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT. when all sorts
  of things go wrong

74
Mechanisms and techniques of irony

• overemphasis of inverted meaning
• Yes! I'd really like that!
• internal inconsistency
• - in narrative narrator is shown not to have
  seen the truth
• - in style unexpected change in register
  unexpected change of rhythm
  unexpected alliteration
  rhyme fails to appear

75
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
76
Effects of irony

• Irony which destabilizes
• where the intended meaning is difficult to
  pinpoint
• internally inconsistent text
• literal meaning is insufficient
• no specific, authoritative or unified worldview
  a final, implied meaning remains elusive

77
Types of irony

• Verbal irony saying the opposite of what is
  meant
• Dramatic irony discrepancy between what the
  speaker says
• and what the author means
• Irony of situation discrepancy between the
  actual
• circumstances and those that would seem
  appropriate or
• discrepancy between what one anticipates and what
  actually
• comes to pass

78
Allusion

• A reference to something in history or
• previous literature.
• It is like a richly connotative word or a
• symbol, a means of suggesting more
• than it says.

79
T. S. Eliot (1888 1965) The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock Let us go then, you and I,When
the evening is spread out against the skyLike a
patient etherized upon a tableLet us go,
through certain half-deserted streets,The
muttering retreatsOf restless nights in
one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants
with oyster-shellsStreets that follow like a
tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you
to an overwhelming questionOh, do not ask,
What is it?Let us go and make our visit.
80
T. S. Eliot (1888 1965) The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock Let us go then, you and I,When
the evening is spread out against the skyLike a
patient etherized upon a tableLet us go,
through certain half-deserted streets,The
muttering retreatsOf restless nights in
one-night cheap hotelsAnd sawdust restaurants
with oyster-shellsStreets that follow like a
tedious argumentOf insidious intentTo lead you
to an overwhelming questionOh, do not ask,
What is it?Let us go and make our visit.
81
Christopher Marlowe (15641593) The Passionate
Shepherd to His Love  Come live with me and be
my love, And we will all the pleasures
prove  John Donne (15721631) The Bait Come
live with me, and be my love, And we will some
new pleasures prove Robert Herrick
(15911674) To Phyllis Live, live with me. and
thou shalt see The pleasures Ill prepare for thee
82
HAMLET To be, or not to be that is the
questionWhether 'tis nobler in the mind to
sufferThe slings and arrows of
outrageous fortuneOr to take arms against a sea
of troublesAnd by opposing end them. To die, to
sleep No more and by a sleep to say we
endThe heartache and the thousand natural
shocksThat flesh is heir to William
Shakespeare Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1
83
Literary allusion

• if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves
  to a tree it had better not come at all.
• John Keats, Letter to John Taylor, February 27,
  1818

84
Philip Larkin The Trees   The trees are coming
into leaf Like something almost being said The
recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is
a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too, Their yearly
trick of looking new Is written down in rings of
grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May. Last year is
dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh,
afresh.
85
Larkin alluding to Keats

• May his allusion imply that poetry does not come
  like leaves to a tree but only as a result of
  painful labour?
• Did Larkin indicate that he personally, unlike
  romantic poets, did not trust allegedly
  uncontrolled outbursts of inspirational energy?
• Was he uncertain about the role of the poet or
  his own role as a poet?