Society for Pure English, Tract 11 - Three Articles on Metaphor

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Project Gutenberg's Three Articles on Metaphor, by Society for Pure EnglishThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: Tract XI: Three Articles on MetaphorAuthor: Society for Pure EnglishRelease Date: August 28, 2004 [EBook #13311]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR ***Produced by David Starner, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, Post-Processor, and the Project Gutenberg OnlineDistributed Proofreaders TeamSOCIETY FOR PURE ENGLISHTRACT No. XITHREE ARTICLES ON METAPHORBy E.B., H.W. Fowler & A. Clutton-BrockMISCELLANEOUS NOTES & CORRESPONDENCEAt the Clarendon Press1922THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHORI. NOTES ON THE FUNCTION OF METAPHORThe business of the writer is to arouse in the mind of his reader the fullest possible consciousness of the ideas oremotion that he is expressing.To this end he suggests a comparison between it and something else which is similar to it in respect of those qualities towhich he desires to draw attention. The reader's mind at once gets to work unconsciously on this comparison, rejectingthe unlike qualities and recognizing with an enhanced and satisfied consciousness the like ones. The functions of simileand metaphor are the same in this respect.Both simile and metaphor are ...

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• Publié par: upse
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 53
• Langue: English

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Title: Tract XI: Three Articles on Metaphor Author: Society for Pure English Release Date: August 28, 2004 [EBook #13311] Language: English

Produced by David Starner, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, Post-Processor, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR ***

TRACT No. XI

SOCIETY FOR PURE ENGLISH

THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR

By E.B., H.W. Fowler & A. Clutton-Brock

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES & CORRESPONDENCE

At the Clarendon Press

1922

THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR

I. NOTES ON THE FUNCTION OF METAPHOR

The business of the writer is to arouse in the mind of his reader the fullest possible consciousness of the ideas or emotion that he is expressing. To this end he suggests a comparison between it and something else which is similar to it in respect of those qualities to which he desires to draw attention. The reader's mind at once gets to work unconsciously on this comparison, rejecting the unlike qualities and recognizing with an enhanced and satisfied consciousness the like ones. The functions of simile and metaphor are the same in this respect. Both simile and metaphor are best when not too close to the idea they express, that is, when they have not many qualities in common with it which are not cogent to the aspect under consideration. The test of a well-used metaphor is that it should completely fulfil this function: there should be no by-products of imagery which distract from the poet's aim, and vitiate and weaken the desired consciousness. A simile, in general, need not be so close as a metaphor, because the point of resemblance is indicated, whereas in a metaphor this is left to the reader to discover. When a simile or metaphor is from the material to the immaterial, or vice versa, the analogy should be more complete than when it is between two things on the same plane: when they are on different planes there is less dullness (that is, less failure to produce consciousness), and the greater mental effort required of the reader warrants some assistance. The degree of effort required in applying any given metaphor should be in relation to the degree of emotion proper to the passage in which it is used. Only those metaphors which require little or no mental exertion should be used in very emotional passages, or the emotional effect will be much weakened: a far-fetched, abstruse metaphor or simile implies that the writer is at leisure from his emotion, and suggests this attitude in the reader.—[E.B.]

II. SOME NOTES ON METAPHOR IN JOURNALISM Live and dead metaphor; some pitfalls; self-consciousness and mixed metaphor. 1. Live and Dead Metaphor. In all discussion of metaphor it must be borne in mind that some metaphors are living, i.e. are offered and accepted with a consciousness of their nature as substitutes for their literal equivalents, while others are dead, i.e. have been so often used that speaker and hearer have ceased to be aware that the words are not literal: but the line of distinction between the live and the dead is a shifting one, the dead being sometimes liable, under the stimulus of an affinity or a repulsion, to galvanic stirrings indistinguishable from life. Thus, in The men were sifting meal we have a literal use of sift ; in Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat , 'sift' is a live metaphor; in the sifting of evidence , the metaphor is so familiar that it is about equal chances whether sifting or examination will be used, and a sieve is not present to the thought—unless, indeed, some one conjures it up by saying All the evidence must first be sifted with acid tests , or with the microscope ; under such a stimulus our metaphor turns out to have been not dead, but dormant. The other word, examine , will do well enough as an example of the real stone-dead metaphor; the Latin examino , being from examen the tongue of a balance, meant originally to weigh; but, though weighing is not done with acid tests or microscopes any more than sifting, examine gives no convulsive twitchings, like sift , at finding itself in their company; examine , then, is dead metaphor, and sift only half dead, or three-quarters. 2. Some pitfalls. A, Unsustained Metaphor; B, Overdone Metaphor; C, Spoilt Metaphor; D, Battles of the Dead; E, Mixed Metaphor. A. Unsustained Metaphor He was still in the middle of those twenty years of neglect which only began to lift in 1868 . The plunge into metaphor at lift , which presupposes a mist, is too sudden after the literal twenty years of neglect ; years, even gloomy years, do not lift. The means of education at the disposal of the Protestants and Presbyterians of the North were stunted and sterilized. 'The means at disposal' names something too little vegetable or animal to consort with the metaphorical verbs. Education (personified) may be stunted, but means may not. The measure of Mr. Asquith's shame does not consist in the mere fact that he has announced his intention to … Metaphorical measuring, like literal, requires a more accommodating instrument than a stubborn fact. B. Overdone Metaphor The days are perhaps past when a figure was deliberately chosen that could be worked out with line upon line of relentless detail, and the following well-known specimen is from Richardson:— Tost to and fro by the high winds of passionate control, I behold the desired port, the single state, into which I would fain steer; but am kept off by the foaming billows of a brother's and sister's envy, and by the raging winds of a supposed invaded authority; while I see in Lovelace, the rocks on one hand, and in Solmes, the sands on the other; and tremble, lest I should split upon the former or strike upon the latter . The present fashion is rather to develop a metaphor only by way of burlesque. All that need be asked of those who tend to this form of satire is to remember that, while some metaphors do seem to deserve such treatment, the number of times that the same joke can safely be made, even with variations, is limited; the limit has surely been exceeded, for instance, with 'the long arm of coincidence'; what proportion may this triplet of quotations bear to the number of times the thing has been done?— The long arm of coincidence throws the Slifers into Mercedes's Cornish garden a little too heavily. The author does not strain the muscles of coincidence's arm to bring them into relation. Then the long arm of coincidence rolled up its sleeves and set to work with a rapidity and vigour which defy description . Modern overdoing, apart from burlesque, is chiefly accidental, and results not from too much care, but from too little. The most irreconcilable of Irish landlords are beginning to recognize that we are on the eve of the dawn of a newday in Ireland . 'On the eve of' is a dead metaphor for 'about to experience', and to complete it with 'the dawn of a day' is as bad as to say, It cost one pound sterling, ten instead of one pound ten . C. Spoilt Metaphor The essential merit of real or live metaphor being to add vividness to what is being conveyed, it need hardly be said that accuracy of detail is even more necessary in metaphorical than in literal expressions; the habit of metaphor, however, and the habit of accuracy do not always go together. Yet Taurès was the Samson who upheld the pillars of the Bloc. Yet what more distinguished names does the Anglican Church of the last reign boast than those of F.D. Maurice, Kingsley, Stanley, Robertson of Brighton, and even, if we will drawour net a little wider, the great Arnold?

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