Page images
PDF
EPUB

"Now morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl.”

MILTON.

In the following description of an Alpine storm there are two comparisons; and in the first stanza three nouns, three adjectives, and four verbs; and in the second, five nouns, one adjective, one verb, and two participles, are used by a metaphor. Which are they!

"The sky is changed. And such a change! Oh, night, And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong;

Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light

Of a dark eye in woman. Far along,

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,

Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud,
But every mountain now hath found a tongue;
And Jura answers, through her misty shroud,
Back to the joyous Alps, who call on her aloud!

"And this is in the night. Most glorious night!
Thou wast not sent for slumber! Let me be
A sharer in thy fierce and far delight,
A portion of the tempest and of thee!

How the lit lake shines-a phosphoric sea;
And the big rain comes dancing to the earth!
And now again 't is black; and now the glee

Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth,
As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth."

BYRON.

Let each scholar form a sentence in which a noun is metaphorized. Let each form one in which a verb is metaphorized. Let each form one in which an adjective is used by the figure. Let each form one in which a noun and verb are used by it. Let each form one with a metaphorical noun, verb, and adjective.

CHAPTER IV.

THE METONYMY.

THE Metonymy is a change of name, by the denomination of a thing by a noun that is not its proper nor its metaphorical denominative, but is the proper name of something with which, as a scene, place, cause, effect, or source, it is intimately connected; as when a person is said to have a clear head instead of a clear mind; and to keep a good table instead of good food; and when the name of a place is put for its population; as, "Assyria, the rod of mine anger" (Is. x. 5), in which the armies of Assyria are meant, instead of the country. "Thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob" (Is. ii. 6), where house is put for family, or descendants. "Ye have consumed the vineyard" (Is. iii. 14); "Your land, strangers devour it" (Is. i. 7), in which vineyard and land are put for their fruits. "Ramah trembles, Gibeah of Saul

flees, Madmenah wanders" (Is. x. 29, 31), in which these names of places are put for their inhabitants.

The metonymy is founded on an intimate connexion of that to which the borrowed name is given with that from which it is transferred; not, like the metaphor, on a resemblance between them. There is no likeness between a city and the inhabitants that reside in it; between a country and its population; nor between the head and the mind that animates it. It is a verbal figure, therefore, or lies in the artificial use of a word, not in the use of a thing.

The figure occurs frequently in the Scriptures; as, "Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; he shall be your fear, and he your dread" (Is. viii. 13), where fear and dread are put for their object. "Is this the man that made the earth shake, that made the kingdoms tremble" (Is. xiv. 16)? It was not in the power of the king of Babylon to make the earth shake, or kingdoms tremble; they are used, therefore, by metonymy for the population of the earth, and the rulers of the kingdoms. "And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim; and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are

moved with the wind " (Is. vii. 2).

Here house is put

for Ahaz the king, and his family, the descendants

of David; Syria for its population, or rulers; and heart for the mind. The figure is employed also by the poets, as in the following, in which world is used for its inhabitants:

"The world may dance along the flowery plain,

Chased as they go by many a sprightly train."

THOMSON.

In the following, heaven is put for God who reigns there:

"Inquirer cease; petitions yet remain

While Heaven may hear, nor deem religion vain :
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,

But leave to Heaven the measure and the choice."

JOHNSON.

In the following, year is put for the products of the year:

"Blossoms, and fruits, and flowers, together rise;

And the whole year in gay confusion lies."

ADDISON.

"In these green days

Reviving sickness lifts her languid head,

Life flows afresh, and young-ey'd health exalts

The whole creation round; contentment walks
The sunny glade, and feels an inward bliss

Spring o'er his mind, beyond the power of kings

To purchase."

THOMSON.

Here sickness, health, and contentment, are put for persons who are subjects of them.

In the following, the heart, which grief assails, is put for the person who grieves:

"The silent heart which grief assails

Treads soft and lonesome o'er the vales;

Sees daisies open, rivers run,

And seeks, as I have vainly done,

Amusing thought; but learns to know

That solitude's the nurse of woe."

PARNELL.

Age, in the following passage, is put for the

aged:

66

Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat
Defects of judgment and the will subdue;
Walk thoughtful on the silent solemn shore
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon."

YOUNG.

The figure is often used in conversation; as, "Did he pay you in paper or in coin?" "He paid

« PreviousContinue »