TOPIC: Figurative Language
Figurative language makes use of comparisons to help the reader see more vividly and concretely. Often times, the point that the poet is trying to get across is quite abstract and complex. By comparing an unfamiliar concept to something that is more familiar and tangible, the poet is able to communicate the meaning of the poem. Take a look at this poem by Emily Dickinson.
After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes--
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After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?
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The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
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A Quartz contentment, like a stone –
This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –
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In this poem, Dickinson is trying to convey the experience of emotional pain, and the numbness that comes in its wake. This is a difficult idea to express to a reader and so she uses figurative language to give us a sense of her meaning. The speaker tells us that her nerves are "like Tombs" (2). The comparison at the heart of this simile contains death, coldness, silence. In the second stanza, the speaker's feet are compared to something "mechanical" (5) and "wooden" (6). This further conveys the sense that the speaker has no volition, no "life" left in her after the emotional turmoil she has experienced. She is in fact alive, but she is moving around and living life in a kind of lifeless, mechanical way. In the third stanza, the speaker states that "This is the Hour of Lead--" again using figurative language to give a sense of the heaviness she feels. None of the comparisons made here are literally true. Figurative language gets to the truth of an experience by using comparisons that are not literally true but are emotionally authentic.
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We can see in this poem that Dickinson uses several types of figurative language.
- In a simile, the poet explicitly compares one thing to another by using the word "like." Dickinson uses simile when her speaker states that the nerves are "like Tombs" (2).
- In a metaphor, the poet implicitly compares one thing to another, never overtly indicating that the comparison is being made, but simply describing something in terms of something else. When the speaker says "This is the Hour of Lead" (9) she is describing her pain and grief as the heaviness of lead. However, she never comes right out and say that she's making this comparison.
- In personification, the poet gives human qualities to an object, animal, or an idea. The speaker is using personification when she states that the "the stiff Heart questions" (3) as if the heart were a person who can ask questions.
For more on figurative language and metaphor, take a look at the video below by the renowned poet, Jane Hirshfield.