Slike strani
PDF
ePub

METAPHOR.

"Canst thou minister unto a mind diseased—

Pluck from the heart a rooted sorrow?"

31

The following is a picturesque metaphor:—"They sank like lead in the mighty waters."

(3.) Agreeable surprise:- Speaking of the king's honor, Junius varies the figure of Chatham: "The feather that adorns the royal bird, supports his flight. Strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth." Again, "In the shipwreck of the state, trifles float and are preserved; while everything solid and valuable sinks to the bottom, and is lost for ever."

The condensation obtained by the metaphor, as compared with the simile, may be shown in this instance. (Simile :) "As, in passing through the crystal, beams of white light are decomposed into the colors of the rainbow; so, in traversing the soul of the poet, the colorless rays of truth are transformed into brightly-tinted poetry." Transformed into metaphors:— "The white light of truth, in traversing the many-sided transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry." (Spencer's Essays—Philosophy of Style.)

18. The personifying Metaphors are chiefly subservient to the purposes of poetry.

The following are examples :—

"O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse."

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green."
"But yonder comes the powerful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the east."

19. The coining of Metaphors is a means of increasing the names in a language.

Metaphorical expressions pervade every language. All the simple prepositions—of, to, for, in, at, with—originally referred to place and motion; but they have been extended by metaphor to other relations:—" honor to the brave."

The technical language of Anatomy is in great part metaphorical-pons varolii, hippocampus major, true skin, labyrinth

of the ear. It is the same with the language of the common

arts.

20. Metaphor is largely employed in expressing the more hidden operations of the mind. Thus, knowledge is light, passion is fire, depression of spirits is gloom: the thought struck him.

So we speak of a ray of hope, a shade of doubt, a flight of fancy, a flash of wit, ebullitions of anger. All the names of mental operations were originally applied to something sensible; as perception, apprehension, conception, recollection, deliberation, inspiration, imagination, sagacity (originally quickness of smell), acuteness, penetration, emotion, expression.

Words originally applied to the operations of the senses, are transferred to those of the understanding: "I see (that is,

[ocr errors]

understand) what you mean." So "taste is made to signify

discrimination in the fine arts.

21. By frequent use, metaphors may lose their figurative character.

As in the case of melancholy (black bile), edify (build), acuteness (sharpness), ardor (heat), express (to press out), enhance (lift), provide (see beforehand), detect (unroof), &c.

In these instances, the original meaning is no longer suggested to the mind. In other cases, the words are still used in their primitive as well as in a figurative sense, and hence they continue to have a certain illustrative force of similarity; as, light, color, fire, fountain, sources, root, life, thunder, star, field, clear, hard, piercing, follow, shelter, mask, ruminate.

22. Besides the faults arising in the employment of figures of similarity in general, there are some more particularly attaching to the metaphor.

(1.) The Mixed Metaphor. This arises when in the same expression metaphors from different subjects are combined; as, "to kindle a seed," "to take arms against a sea of troubles."

We may sow a seed or kindle a flame; but the mind is

MIXED METAPHORS.

33

confused when incompatible operations are required to be joined.

The following example has often been quoted from Addison's poem on the victories of Marlborough :—

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

Three different actions are here conjoined in one.

"The noble harbor of the Golden Horn, five miles in length, crowded with all the Jlags of Europe lying in its bosom."

The following line from Young, although a mixed metaphor, is considered elegant and expressive:—

"Her voice is but the shadow of a sound."

In like manner, many of the mixed metaphors in Shakespeare are redeemed by their effectiveness and originality.

The mixture of the metaphorical and the plain, or literal, is also objectionable. Dryden, speaking of the aids he had in his translations, says, "I was sailing in a vast ocean without other help than the pole-star of the ancients, and the rules of the French stage among the moderns." "Boyle was the father of Chemistry, and brother to the Earl of Cork."

When words have lost their metaphorical meaning, the int congruity is no longer felt. There are, however, many words that have ceased to be metaphors, but still so far suggest their original meaning as to give the sense of harmony when the figure is attended to. Thus, to say "the impression was conveyed" involves a certain degree of inconsistency, although quite intelligible. "Upon the style it is that these perplexities depend for their illumination." Perplexity should be disentangled, and obscurity illuminated.

[ocr errors]

Our language has many combinations of words, indifferent as regards the metaphor, but fixed by use, and therefore not to be departed from. We say use or employ means," and "take steps," but not use steps. One may acquire knowledge, take degrees, contract habits, lay up treasure, obtain rewards, win prizes, gain celebrity, arrive at honors, conduct affairs, espouse a side, interpose authority, pursue a course, turn to account, serve for a warning, bear no malice, profess principles, cultivate

acquaintance, pass over in silence; all which expressions owe their suitability, not to the original sense of the words, but to the established usages of the language.

(2.) The straining of a Metaphor. By this is meant the pursuing of the figure into details that are irrelevant or out of keeping.

Young, speaking of old age, says it should

"Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon;

And put good works on board; and wait the wind
That shortly blows us into worlds unknown.

In the last two lines, the feelings suggested are out of keeping with what goes before. At first an emotion of deep solemnity is excited; the figure then changes to the prosaic and calculating operations of a sea-faring enterprise.

This fault is, therefore, a case of discord, which is everywhere a blemish in composition.

(3.) Excess of Metaphors.

When metaphors are greatly multiplied, it becomes difficult to preserve their congruity, and the variety of subjects necessarily distracts the mind. There is also the evil attending profusion of figures generally; the mind is kept too much on the strain.

The ancient critics particularly adverted to this fault. In the opinion of Longinus, Demosthenes observed the just mean and Plato often exceeded it. Such excess, however, is not likely to be confined to metaphors, but extends to all kinds of figures, constituting the florid or figurative style.

PERSONIFICATION.

23. Personification consists in attributing life and mind to inanimate things. "The mountains sing together, the hills rejoice and clap their hands."

Personification is a figure of various degrees.

I. The highest degree ascribes to inanimate objects human feelings and purposes, as well as sex.

[ocr errors]

PEESONIFIOATION.

As in Milton, on Eve's taking the forbidden fruit :—

"So saying, her rash hand, in evil hour,

Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate !
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her teat
Sighing, through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost."

35

It is in this form that the figure appears in the boldest flights of poetry. In figurative boldness it is surpassed only by the Apostrophe. Shelley's "Cloud" is personification throughout. The following stanza is an example:—

"I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under;
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder."

Besides the actual objects of Nature, it is not unusual to personify abstractions of the mind; as, time, life, death, truth, love, virtue, evil, sin, hope, wisdom, genius, friendship, pleasure, vengeance.

"Can wisdom lend, with all her boasted power,

The pledge of joy's anticipated hour?"

By a process short of personification, abstractions may be represented as real things, and thereby be rendered more vivid. Thus time is a river, a shore, a wave on the ocean of eternity. Life is a vapor, a dream, a shadow.

Ancient mythology gave personal existence to all the imposing objects and appearances of Nature; the sun, moon, and stars; the sky, earth, seas, mountains, rocks, hills, valleys, rivers, springs, floods; the winds, clouds, thunder, hail; the day, night, dawn, light, dark; the seasons. Likewise to the important productions of nature, as corn and wine.

These personifications are retained in the poetry of all languages, for the sake of clothing the objects with the interest that personality gives.

« PrejšnjaNaprej »