Types of Figures of Speech

To better illustrate the idea of the patterned nature of tropes and figures of speech, we have always proceeded from the principle (be it analogy, contrast, recurrence, or incomplete representation) that stands basic in the unit. But, as it follows from the definitions and illustrations given above, more than one principle manifests itself, as a rule, in each unit of poetic speech. Thus, in an antithesis it is not only the principle of contrast but that of recurrence as well: recurrent may be either syntactic elements (parallelism) or phonetic (alliteration) or both, e. g. "Some look'd perplex'd and others look'd profound." (G. Byron) "Youth is lovely, age is lonely." (H. W. Longfellow)

In a pun there may be present analogy as well as contrast: the analogy of sound and the contrast of meaning, e, g. "I am a mender of bad soles." (W. Shakespeare) [Soul]—

1) The moral part of man's nature; 2) the bottom of a book, shoe, slipper; or: "Is confidence based on a rate of exchange? We used to speak of sterling qualities. Have we got to talk now about a dollar love?" (G. Greene) Sterling: 1) English money; 2) genuine._____

This being the underlying factor in most of the units -f poetic speech, we do not use the term "mixed" each time we have such a unit. The term "mixed" should be used when a trope or a figure of speech involves other units of poetic speech which -happen to be its constituents. For instance, a case of pun may involve a metaphor (e. g. "I will speak daggers to her, but use none.") or an epithet (e. g. "Her nose was sharp, but not so sharp as her voice or the suspiciousness with which she faced Martin."); a paradox may involve an antithesis (e. g. "Wine costs money, blood costs nothing.") or a repetition + antithesis (e. g. "I always find out that one's most glaring fault is one's most important, virtue."), etc. It is always essential to see the unit that stands as the main (a macro-unit) in relation to its constituent parts (micro-units).

The tropes and the greater part of the figures of speech we have considered above are the more prominent units of poetic speech. Each of them carries enormous expressive potentiality which alone accounts for the extensive use these units have in literary texts.

Recognition and fame From "Martin Eden" by Jack London

Ruth was a girl of the upper middle class coming to see Martin Eden who has become a well-known writer. Martin Eden was in love with Ruth when he was a poor struggling young author. Now he shows no emotion as his feeling for her is dead.

"Oh, Martin don't be cruel" - cried Ruth, - "you have not kissed me once. "You are as cold as a stone and think what I have dared to do. Just think of where I am?"

"Why didn't you dare it before?" - he asked. - 'When I was starving, when I was just I am now as a man, as an artist, the same Martin Eden? That's the question I've been putting to myself for many a day not concerning you only but concerning everybody. You see I have not changed, my brain is the same old brain. I am personally of the same value that I was when nobody wanted me. And what is puzzling me is why they want me now. Surely, they don't want me for myself, for myself is the same old self they did not want. Then they must want me for something else, for something that is outside of me, for something that is not I. Shall I tell you what that something is ? It is for the recognition I have received. That recognition is not I. it resides in the minds of others. Then again for the money I have earned and am earning. But that money is not I. It resides in banks and the pockets of Tom, Dick and Harry. And it is for that, for the recognition and the money , that you now want me '

You are breaking my heart" she sobbed. You know I love you, that I am here because I love you".

I am afraid you don't see my point" he said gently. "What I mean is- if you love me, how does it happen that you love me now so much more than you did when your love was weak enough to deny me?" "Forget and forgive" she cried passionately. "Martin Eden with his work all performed you would not marry" he went on. "But your love is now strong enough and I cannot avoid the conclusion that its strength arises from the publication and the public notice".

They sat in silence for a long time, she thinking desperately, and he pondering upon his love which had gone. He knew now that he had not really loved her. It was an idealized Ruth he had loved, an ethereal creature of his own creating. The real bourgeois Ruth he had never loved.