figurative Language

"Nature's first green is gold" ......................Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost Frost's poem contains the perfect image of Vermont's spring landscape. The hardwoods lose their leaves in autumn and stay bare through the winter. In spring, the first green to appear is really gold as the buds break open. The willows and maples have this temporary gold hue. In only a few days, the leaves mature to green.

 

The Poetics of Robert Frost - Examples

Figurative Language

Metaphor	The Silken Tent	Putting in the Seed	Devotion	To Earthward	All Revelation
Simile	Mending Wall	Stars	Going for Water	Birches	Hyla Brook
Symbol	The Road Not Taken	Rose Pogonias	Stopping by Woods	The Pasture & Directive	Come In
Personifi- cation	My November Guest	Mowing	Range-Finding	Tree at my Window	Storm Fear
Apostrophe	Take Some- thing like a Star	Tree at my Window	Mending Wall
Synecdoche	Stopping by Woods	The Gift Outright	I Will Sing You One-O	Kitty Hawk	Fire and Ice
Metonymy	Out, Out
Allegory or Parable	After Apple- Picking	The Grindstone	The Lockless Door	Birches	Design
Paradox	Nothing Gold Can Stay	The Gift Outright	Ghost House	Fire and Ice	The Tuft of Flowers
Hyperbole	A Star in a Stoneboat	Etherealizing	After Apple-Picking	Stopping by Woods	The Milky Way is a Cowpath
Under Statement	Fire and Ice	Mowing	Hyla Brook	My November Guest	Brown's Descent
Irony	Birches	Range-Finding	The Road Not Taken	Ghost House	Stars

Figurative Language

 

Figurative language uses "figures of speech" - a way of saying something other than the literal meaning of the words. For example, "All the world's a stage" Frost often referred to them simply as "figures." Frost said, "Every poem I write is figurative in two senses. It will have figures in it, of course; but it's also a figure in itself - a figure for something, and it's made so that you can get more than one figure out of it." Cook Voices p235

 

Metaphor A figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things essentially unalike. To Frost, metaphor is really what poetry is all about. He is notably a poet of metaphors more than anything else. This is so important, we should hear directly from the poet. Frost said," Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, 'grace metaphors,' and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have. Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. People say, 'Why don't you say what you mean?' We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets. We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections - whether from diffidence or from some other instinct". ... Excerpt from an essay entitled "Education by Poetry" by Robert Frost.

 

Examples:

The Silken Tent. A woman is admired for her strength and beauty, like a silken tent. Note the strength of the silk and cedar.

Putting in the Seed. The planting of seed in the garden, in springtime is like making love.

Devotion. The passive but ever-changing shore and the persistent energetic ocean are like a devoted couple.

To Earthward. The stages of love are like stepping stones to death.

All Revelation. A view of a geode crystal is like the mind probing the universe. (Go back to Table)

 

Simile A figure of speech in which a comparison is expressed by the specific use of a word or phrase such as: like, as, than, seems or Frost's favorite "as if,"

 

Examples:

Mending Wall: like an old-stone savage armed

Stars: like some snow-white/ Minerva's snow-white marble eyes

Going for Water: We ran as if to meet the moon ---- we paused / like gnomes

Birches: Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Hyla Brook: Like ghost of sleigh bells (Table)

 

Symbol A thing (could be an object, person, situation or action) which stands for something else more abstract. For example our flag is the symbol of our country. The use of symbols in Frost's poetry is less obvious. Frost was not known as a Symbolist. Actually, the Symbolists were a late 19th century movement reacting against realism. Frost rebelled against this movement and preferred to use metaphors. There are certain signature images that become symbols when we look at Frost's complete work. Flowers, stars, dark woods and spring (the water kind) are consistent symbols in Frost's poetry and should be noted here. As with many other poetic devices, Frost had his own way of keeping the rule and breaking the rule. Cook Dimensions p197

 

Frost said, "If my poetry has to have a name, I'd prefer to call it Emblemism," not "Symbolism," which is all too likely to clog up and kill a poem." Burnshaw p283

 

Examples:

The Road Not Taken: the forked road represents choices in life. The road in this poem is a text book example of a symbol.

Rose Pogonias: Early in Frost's poetry, flowers become a symbol for the beloved, his wife Elinor.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: even though there is no one overt symbol in the poem, the entire journey can represent life's journey. "Dark woods" also become a powerful recurring symbol in Frost.

The Pasture and Directive. Spring (as in water spring) is very meaningful in Frost's poetry. Spring represents origin or source, almost in a Proustian sense. Other variations include "brook" Hyla Brook and West-Running Brook. Water often deals with an emotional state.

Come In: "But no, I was out for stars." The star is one of the chief symbolic images in Frost's poetry. (Table)

 

Personification A type of metaphor in which distinct human qualities, e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are attributed to an animal, object or idea.

 

Examples:

My November Guest: the guest is Sorrow, personified as a woman dearly loved who walks with him.

Mowing: the scythe whispers

Range-Finding: the spider sullenly withdraws

Tree at my Window: the tree watches him sleep; it has tongues talking aloud

Storm Fear: the wind works and whispers, the cold creeps, the whole storm is personified (Table)

 

Apostrophe A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead OR something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present.

 

Examples:

Take Something Like a Star: the poem begins, "O Star," He addresses the star throughout the poem.

Tree at my Window: He addresses the tree throughout: "Tree at my window, window tree."

Mending Wall: speaking to the stones that make up the barrier, he says, "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"

 

Synecdoche A figure of speech which mentions a part of something to suggest the whole. As in, "All hands on deck," meaning all sailors to report for duty. Hands = sailors. Frost said, "I started calling myself a Synecdochist when other called themselves Imagists or Vortices."

 

Examples:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: The little journey in the poem represents life's journey.

The Gift Outright: The gift represents the history of the United States.

I Will Sing You One-O: Two clock towers striking One o'clock represent extensions of earthly and heavenly time.

Kitty Hawk: Man's first flight represents man's yearning for God or heaven.

Fire and Ice: The heat of love and the cold of hate are seen as having cataclysmic power.

 

Metonymy A figure of speech that uses a concept closely related to the thing actually meant. The substitution makes the analogy more vivid and meaningful.

 

Examples:

Out, Out: the injured boy holds up his hand "as if to keep / the life from spilling." The literal meaning is to keep the blood from spilling. Frost's line tells us that the hand is bleeding and the boy's life is in danger. (Table)

 

Allegory or Parable A poem in the form of a narrative or story that has a second meaning beneath the surface one. Frost is notable for his use of the parable using the description to evoke an idea. Some critics call him a "Parablist."

 

Examples:

After Apple-Picking: the apple harvest suggests accomplishment

The Grindstone: the grinding of the blade suggests the idea of judging and recognizing limits

The Lockless Door: a story of self escape

Birches: the climbing suggests the value of learning and experience

Design: the incident suggests a universal design (Table)

 

Paradox A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, but on closer inspection may be true.

 

Examples:

Nothing Gold Can Stay: green is gold

The Gift Outright: "And forthwith found salvation in surrender."

Ghost House: I dwell in a house that vanished.

Fire and Ice:"But if it had to perish twice"

The Tuft of Flowers: men work together whether they work together or apart.

 

Hyperbole A bold, deliberate overstatement not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement. This is relatively rare in Frost. He has a penchant for fact and truth.

 

Example:

A Star in a Stoneboat: A meteorite is found in a field and supposed to be a star which has fallen to earth

Etherealizing: The idea of reducing ourselves simply to a brain.

After Apple-Picking: Ten thousand thousand fruit to touch.

Stopping by Woods: The woods filling up with snow.

The Milky Way is a Cowpath (title) (Table)

 

Understatement The presentation of a thing with underemphasis in order to achieve a greater effect. Frost uses this device extensively, often as a means of irony. His love poems are especially understated. He cautions, "Never larrup an emotion."

 

Examples:

Fire and Ice: Ice, which for destruction is great, "will suffice."

Mowing: "Anything more than the truth would have seemed to weak" This is almost Frost's definition of understatement

Hyla Brook: the last line "We love the things we love for what they are."

My November Guest: The speaker appreciates the November landscape, but leaves it to his "guest" to praise.

Brown's Descent: After falling down an ice crusted slope, Farmer Brown still clutching his lantern says, "Ile's (oil's) 'bout out!"

 

Irony Verbal irony is a figure of speech when an expression used is the opposite of the thought in the speaker's mind, thus conveying a meaning that contradicts the literal definition. Dramatic irony is a literary or theatrical device of having a character utter words which the the reader or audience understands to have a different meaning, but of which the character himself is unaware. Irony of situation is when a situation occurs which is quite the reverse of what one might have expected. Often, Frost's use of irony convey's one meaning by word and syntax, and another by the tone of voice it indicates. The tone contradicts the words. Frost's irony is usually tricky because it is so subtle.

 

Examples:

Birches: Dramatic irony the wish to get away from earth may not be granted too soon

Range-Finding: Irony of situation when the spider is disturbed by a bullet but finds it unimportant.

The Road Not Taken: Verbal irony - the speaker knows he will tell the old story "with a sigh" of a choice that "made all the difference."

Ghost House: Irony of situation when daylight falls (usually night falls) into a place that was supposed to be dark in order too keep things for survival.The cellar was a storeroom filled with things to get you through the winter. In this case, daylight is dissolution of the proper and good use of the place. Wild raspberries now grow where fruit used to be stored. This poem is full of irony. 

Stars: Minerva, the goddess of wisdom but her eyes are without the gift of sight. (Table)

 

Return to The Poetics of Robert Frost

Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky -(1840 - 1893), The Composer

We assume that Tchaikovsky was always destined to be a great musician, but in fact his respected piano teacher, Rudolf Kundinger, tried hard to dissuade him from a musical career. Fortunately for us all, Kundinger’s advice was ignored.

Born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, the 7th of May 1840, Tchaikovsky was the second eldest of six children. At the age of six he could read French and German and at seven wrote verses in French and began piano lessons. He spent the first eight years of his life comparatively settled, but in 1848 his father, a mining engineer, resigned his government post which brought about a difficult period of constant moves. In 1850 Tchaikovsky began attending the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence, becoming a clerk in the Ministry of Justice in 1859. He studied with Nicolai Zaremba until the opening of the new St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1862, to which he transferred. The next year Tchaikovsky left his job in the Ministry of Justice to study full time at the Conservatory.

Anton Rubenstein, the director of the conservatory, took an interest in Tchaikovsky and had him study everything including conducting. He was always terrified of facing an orchestra (even when in great demand as a conductor), fearing his head would fall from his shoulders. For that reason he conducted with his left hand under his chin to keep it attached.

Graduating after four years he went on to teach for twelve years at the Moscow Conservatory, where he began to compose. In his first two years there he had already written his first symphony and the opera Voyevoda. In 1868 he met with the famous group of young Russian composers "The Five" - Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Although he greatly admired them and wrote his second symphony in response to their fervor, he never joined the group and in the end thought of them as more internationalists than true Russians.

From 1869 to 1875 he wrote three more operas and became music critic for Russkiye Vedomosti in 1872.

In 1877 one of his pupils, Antonina Milyokova, declared her love for Tchaikovsky and hinted at suicide unless he would marry her. So involved was he in the composition of Eugene Onegin that he could not find it in himself to callously reject her as had Onegin rejected Tatiana. In a bid for conventionality he married her, but after a disastrous nine weeks they separated. Tchaikovsky attempted suicide by drowning but was saved by his brother, Modeste, only to suffer a nervous breakdown. Tchaikovsky moved to Switzerland to recover and later to Italy. He continued his financial support of Antonina until his death. For her part, she took on a series of lovers and finally died in an asylum in 1917.

It was at this time that Tchaikosky came under the patronage of Madame Nadezhda von Meck who gave him a yearly allowance permitting him to give up teaching and devote his time to composition. They never met each other, but their correspondence was extensive and frank. He wrote his fourth symphony in dedication to Mme. von Meck.

Tchaikovsky became well regarded in Russia and also in Britain and the United States. In 1885 he moved to a country house in Klin where he lived in virtual isolation and wrote Manfred. 1888 and 1889 brought tours as a conductor to Germany, France and England. After the production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, Tchaikovsky went to Florence to work on his opera The Queen of Spades which was produced in St. Petersburg later that year. This was also the time when his sponsorship by Mme. von Meck ended, due either to her illness or pressure from her family. Although he no longer relied on her financial support, this was a dreadful blow to Tchaikovsky’s self esteem from which he never recovered.

1891 brought the very successful tour of the United States and Tchaikovsky's appearance at the opening of the Music Hall (renamed Carnegie Hall), followed the next year with the premiere of The Nutcracker. In 1893 he received an honorary doctorate of music from Cambridge University. The sixth symphony, having been begun in 1891 but abandoned, was completed in 1893. Tchaikovsky believed it to be his best work. The critics were not too kind. A few days later, November 6, 1893, Tchaikovsky died of cholera, probably the result of drinking a glass of unboiled water.

It has often been proposed that since Tchaikovsky's contacts with people were often unsatisfactory, his music became the expression of his emotions. While it is often pervaded by melancholy, there are times when the composer could shake off his gloom and write some of the most buoyant and brightest music ever heard. This he was able to achieve in The Nutcracker which came at a very low ebb in his affairs.

Tchaikovsky raised the status of ballet music to previously unknown distinction. Such a revolution, however, did not happen instantly. In his lifetime his ballet music was considered too symphonic, much as some of today's critics claim his symphonies are too balletic. It is difficult to understand why either should be considered a flaw.

Tchaikovsky loved danceable music, particularly that of Mozart who was one of his favorite composers. Tchaikovsky’s music, imbued with its sweeping lyricism, richness, and danceable qualities is a frequent choice of inspiration for choreographers.

A short list of Tchaikovsky’s compositions that were not written for ballets but have subsequently been choreographed to.

 Serenade for String Orchestra Eros/Fokine (1915)

  Serenade/Balanchine (1934)

 Francesca da Rimini Fokine(1915)

  Lichine (1937)

  Lifar (1958)

Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture Bartholin (1937)

  Harangozo (1939)

  Lifar (1946)

 Variations on a Rococo Theme Reflections/Arpino

 1st Suite for Orchestra Mirror Walkers/Wright

  Reveries/Clifford

 2nd Suite for Orchestra Tchaikovsky Suite No. 2/ d’Amboise

 3rd Suite for Orchestra Theme and Variations / Balanchine

  Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 / Balanchine

 4th Suite for Orchestra Mozartiana/Balanchine

 2nd Piano Concerto Ballet Imperial/Balanchine

 3rd Piano Concerto Allegro Brillante/Balanchine

 1st Symphony Snow Maiden/Bourmeister

  Anastasia/MacMillan

 3rd Symphony Anastasia/MacMillan

 5th Symphony Les Presages/Massine

  Jewels (Diamonds)/Balanchine

 6th Symphony L’Amour et son destin/Lifar

  Nijinsky - Clown of God/Béjart

 Manfred Symphony Manfred/Nureyev

 Hamlet (Fantasy Overture) Hamlet/Helpmann

 Piano Trio Aleko/Massine

  Designs with Strings/Taras

 Songs Time Past Summer/Harkarvy

 Assorted (Selections arranged by Stolze) Eugene Onegin/Cranko

Selected list of Tchaikovsky's compositions

 1866 Symphony #1, Winter Daydreams

 1868 Fate, symphonic poem

 1869 Romeo and Juliet, fantasy overture (see 1880)

 1871 String Quartet in D major

 1872 Symphony #2, LittleRussian

 1873 The Tempest

 1874-5 Piano Concerto #1

  String quartet in F

 1875 Swan Lake, ballet

  Symphony #3, Polish

  String quartet in Eb

 1876 Variations on a Rococo Theme

  Slavonic March

 1877 Symphony #4

  Francesca da Rimini

  Waltz Scherzo

 1878 Violin concerto in D

  Suite # 1

 1879 Eugene Onegin

  Capriccio Italien

  Piano Concerto #2

 1880 Serenade for Strings

  Romeo and Juliet (final revision)

 1881 Joan of Arc, opera

 1882 1812 Overture

  Piano trio in A minor

 1883 Suite #2Mazeppa, opera

 1884 Suite #3

  Concert-fantasy

 1885 Manfred Symphony

 1887 Suite #4, Mozartiana

 1888 The Sleeping Beauty

  Hamlet, overture

  Symphony #5

 1890 The Queen of Spades

1892 Iolanthe

  The Nutcracker

  String Sextet

 1893 Symphony #6, Pathetique

  Piano Concerto #3

 

Biography for John Williams

Date of Birth : 8 February 1932, Floral Park, Long Island, New York, USA Birth Name    : John Towner Williams

As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 41 Oscar nominations (five wins), twenty-odd Gold and Platinum Records, and a slew of Emmy (two wins), Golden Globe (three wins), Grammy (18 wins), National Board of Review (including a Career Achievement Award), Saturn (six wins), and BAFTA (seven wins) citations, along with honorary doctorate degrees numbering in the teens, Williams is undoubtedly one of the most respected composers for Cinema. He's led countless national and international orchestras, most notably as the nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980-1993, helming three Pops tours of the US and Japan during his tenure. He currently serves as the Pop's Conductor Laureate. Also to his credit is a parallel career as an author of serious, and some not-so-serious, concert works - performed by the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich, André Previn, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Leonard Slatkin, James Ingram, Dale Clevenger, and Joshua Bell. Of particular interests are his Essay for Strings, a jazzy Prelude & Fugue, the multimedia presentation American Journey (aka The Unfinished Journey (1999)), a Sinfonietta for Winds, a song cycle featuring poems by Rita Dove, concerti for flute, violin, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, cello, bassoon and horn, fanfares for the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and a song co-written with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman for the Special Olympics! But such a list probably warrants a more detailed background...

Born in Long Island, New York on February 8, 1932, John Towner Williams discovered music almost immediately, due in no small measure to being the son of a percussionist for CBS Radio and the Raymond Scott Quintet. After moving to Los Angeles in 1948, the young pianist and leader of his own jazz band started experimenting with arranging tunes; at age 15, he determined he was going to become a concert pianist; at 19, he premiered his first original composition, a piano sonata.

He attended both UCLA and the Los Angeles City College, studying orchestration under MGM musical associate Robert Van Eps and being privately tutored by composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, until conducting for the first time during three years with the U.S. Air Force. His return to the states brought him to Julliard, where renowned piano pedagogue Madame Rosina Lhevinne helped Williams hone his performance skills. He played in jazz clubs to pay his way; still, she encouraged him to focus on composing. So it was back to L.A., with the future maestro ready to break into the Hollywood scene.

Williams found work with the Hollywood studios as a piano player, eventually accompanying such fare such as the TV series "Peter Gunn" (1958), South Pacific (1958), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), as well as forming a surprising friendship with Bernard Herrmann. At age 24, "Johnny Williams" became a staff arranger at Columbia and then at 20th Century-Fox, orchestrating for Alfred Newman and Lionel Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and other Golden Age notables. In the field of popular music, he performed and arranged for the likes of Vic Damone, Doris Day, and Mahalia Jackson... all while courting actress/singer Barbara Ruick, who became his wife until her death in 1974. John & Barbara had three children; their daughter is now a doctor, and their two sons, Joseph Williams and Mark Towner Williams, are rock musicians.

The orchestrating gigs led to serious composing jobs for television, notably "Alcoa Premiere" (1961), "Checkmate" (1960), "Gilligan's Island" (1964), "Lost in Space" (1965), "Land of the Giants" (1968), and his Emmy-winning scores for Heidi (1968) (TV) and Jane Eyre (1970) (TV). Daddy-O (1958) and Because They're Young (1960) brought his original music to the big theatres, but he was soon typecast doing comedies. His efforts in the genre helped guarantee his work on William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (1966), however, a major picture that immediately led to larger projects. Of course, his arrangements continued to garner attention, and he won his first Oscar for adapting Fiddler on the Roof (1971).

During the '70s, he was King of Disaster Scores with The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974). His psychological score for Images (1972) remains one of the most innovative works in soundtrack history. But his Americana - particularly The Reivers (1969) - is what caught the ear of director Steven Spielberg, then preparing for his first feature, The Sugarland Express (1974). When Spielberg reunited with Williams on Jaws (1975), they established themselves as a blockbuster team, the composer gained his first Academy Award for Original Score, and Spielberg promptly recommended Williams to a friend, George Lucas. In 1977, John Williams re-popularized the epic cinema sound of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman and other composers from the Hollywood Golden Age: Star Wars (1977) became the best selling score-only soundtrack of all time, and spawned countless musical imitators. For the next five years, though the music in Hollywood changed, John Williams wrote big, brassy scores for big, brassy films - The Fury (1978), Superman (1978), 1941 (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ... An experiment during this period, Heartbeeps (1981), flopped. There was a long-term change of pace, nonetheless, as Williams fell in love with an interior designer and married once more.

_E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)_ brought about his third Oscar, and The River (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Accidental Tourist (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) added variety to the 1980s, as he returned to television with work on "Amazing Stories" (1985) and themes for NBC, including "NBC Nightly News" (1970). The '80s also brought the only exceptions to the composer's collaboration with Steven Spielberg - others scored both Spielberg's segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and The Color Purple (1985).

Intending to retire, the composer's output became sporadic during the 1990s, particularly after the exciting Jurassic Park (1993) and the masterful, Oscar-winning Schindler's List (1993). This lighter workload, coupled with a number of hilarious references on "The Simpsons" (1989) actually seemed to renew interest in his music. Two Home Alone films (1990, 1992), JFK (1991), Nixon (1995), Sleepers (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Angela's Ashes (1999), and a return to familiar territory with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) recalled his creative diversity of the '70s.

In this millennium, the artist shows no interest in slowing down. His relationships with Spielberg and Lucas continue in Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), the remaining Star Wars prequels (2002, 2005), Minority Report (2002), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and a promised fourth Indiana Jones film. There is a more focused effort on concert works, as well, including a theme for the new Walt Disney Concert Hall and a rumored light opera. But one certain highlight is his musical magic for the world of Harry Potter (2001, 2002, 2004, etc.), which he also arranged into a concert suite geared toward teaching children about the symphony orchestra. His music remains on the whistling lips of people around the globe, in the concert halls, on the promenades, in album collections, sports arenas, and parades, and, this writer hopes, touching some place in ourselves. So keep those ears ready wherever you go, 'cause you will likely hear a bit of John Williams on your way.

Source : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002354/bio