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Lesson #2 - post due by Tuesday, March 11th
Two terms that will most likely appear (most likely as choices in a mc question) on the AP exam are synecdoche and metonymy.
Synecdoche is defined as the use of the part for the whole. Shakespeare says that the cuckoo's song is unpleasing to a "married ear". "Ear" is substituted for the whole "man". A less poetic example would be saying "redhead" to mean a red-haired person (part of the whole).
Metonymy is defined as the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant. Shakespeare writes that the yellow cuckoo-buds "paint the meadows with delight". He means that he paints with a bright color that produces delight. Delight is substituted for a bright color. A less poetic example would be to say "tongues" for languages.
Both are considered figurative lanaguage because they substitute some significant detail or aspect of an experience for the experience itself. Using these terms can give the poem its vividness, meaning or compactness.
note - today metonymy is often used for both terms (because they are so much alike).
"Sound and Sense" (Perrine; 65-66)
Robert Frost's classic poem does contain an examply of metonymy, but more importantly is just a wonderful poem to work with. Read the poem and answer questions 1-5.
"Out, Out -"
by Robert Frost
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behing the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap -
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all -
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart -
He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off -
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. The hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning, that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoia and explain its affect on the poem.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ March 01, 2008 04:45 PM: Message edited by: Mr Branch ]</font></font>
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 01, 2008 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Mr Branch ]</font>
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1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
Saying ?as if to keep the life from spilling? means as if to keep the child from dying.
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
Yes, the title is an allusion to lines from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The lines say? Out, out, brief candle! Life?s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more?.
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
The language of this poem seems very technical and cold. It gives many details that explain how meticulously this boy is trying to cut the wood. I think it demonstrates the type of language shows a more mature side that the boy is supposed to have to have the responsibility of cutting the wood, but in reality he is still a young boy who commits the mistake of cutting his hand tragically while cutting the wood.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning, that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoia and explain its affect on the poem.
I think the line with the onomatopoia ?The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard? has a very important meaning to the poem. The word rattled makes me think of a snake that is quietly slivering and then suddenly (through the saw) bites him and takes his hand and his life.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
I hated the ending!! I think the part that says ?since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.? Is extremely sad, but I still think it is important that Frost included it because it has the same tone as the whole poem. This poem is about a little boy who wasn?t old enough to be cutting wood but was still doing it, so it shows how nobody really cared about him in the first place and how no one really cares for him in the end either.
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
In lines 21-22, the word life is used in place of the word blood.
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title. ?
?Out, out? is a line from Macbeth that denotes life?s brevity.
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
The tone is almost one of saddened disapproval. The image of the personified saw deliberately leaping out to sever the boy?s hand because he?d decided to take a break for supper illustrates how demanding and harsh the kid?s work was. And that image is a denunciation against children being submitted to perform that type of labor.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoeia and explain its affect on the poem.
- Consonance: ?And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled?
- Alliteration: ?Sweet-scented stuff?
- Onomatopoeia: ?The buzz saw snarled and rattled.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
Because it is a denunciation against children working, the ending functions well. I think the ending in not insensitive. Rather, it shows how dreadful those children?s reality was. I think the ending signifies the deterioration of and an
end to a life as a kid.
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Frost writes that "life" is spilling, when he means that blood is coming out from the boy's hand.Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all -
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
The poem's title "Out, Out-" alludes to Mcbeth's reaction to his wife's death from the Shakespearean play "Macbeth." In both cases, the dead is compared to a candle's light which would go off against the slightest wind. While Mcbeth continues to fight for his kingdom after the tragedy, the doctor and the dead boy's family "turned to their affairs."
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
The tone of the poem is one of reluctant indifference. The use of powerful dictions such as "outcry" and "rueful laugh" connotes the cruel tragedy of the young boy, yet at the end the imagery of the people who "turned to their affairs" after acknowledging a dreadful death shows how the finale of the boy's life doesn't even manage to make a ripple on the surface of the hardhearted emotions.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning, that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoeia and explain its affect on the poem.
Consonance: "snarled and rattled" personifies the buzz-saw into a worker, independent of the boy, who is doing his job. Together with its repetition, it sinks the youth into oblivion.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
It seems to me that the ending of this poem is merely realistic, and a more tearful and sentimental ending would have taken away the harsh reality Frost tries to convey.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 12, 2008 12:33 AM: Message edited by: brucelin ]</font>
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
In ?Half in appeal, but half as if to keep, The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all?, the author uses the word ?all? instead of blood and his wound.
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
The title ?Out,Out? is a famous line in Macbeth were Shakespeare discusses life and compares its brevity with an extinguishing candle. Similarly, the poem also talks about a boy who, after an unexpected injury, dies abruptly.
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
The tone of the poem seems to be between melancholic but unattached. The poem itself is sad because the boy finally dies and Frost vividly explains his death. For example, he writes, ?As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap - He must have given the hand?. However, at the end the author seems to be indifferent about the situation when he says, ?And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs?.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning, that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoia and explain its affect on the poem.
An example of onomatopoeia is the ?buzz? that saw snarled and rattled in the yard. Also, there is a lot of setting description that contributes to the meaning, specially the description of the mountains. An example is when Frost writes, ?Five mountain ranges one behing the other, Under the sunset far into Vermont?.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
I think that the end of the poem is realistic in the overall scheme of the situation. In other words, the ones directly affected by the death of the boy are too few to be considered a sentimental drain to society as a whole, especially to the world in general. However, I believe this poem goes beyond realistic to a grotesque pessimism. Despite the unawareness that humans have, deaths stir feelings of some, and that is worth taking note of.
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
He uses the word life in reference to the blood that is spilling out of his arm. The blood quickly flowed and spit out of his arm.
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
know when death with get to them.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning, that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or
onomatopoia and explain its affect on the poem.
"Snarled and rattled" both bring me feelings of intense and smooth movements. These words seem to cut right through the arm of the boy. It seems to warn the reader of what will happen.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
The ending is what I think makes the purpose of this particular poem. Here the reader sees that the narrator is simply showing a certain situation and that it is something unexpected that could possibly happen to anyone. He completely disconnects from emotion and simply shows what is going on. In no way does he get into the feelings or reactions of family members. It is realistic, but the narrator doesn't say all the details. This is obviously not the child of the narrator but a simple situation that he witnessed.
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
Life is used instead of the blood spilling from his wound.
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
"Out, out" is an allusion to Macbeth that talks about life's brevity, as happens with the sudden death of this boy.
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
The tone is "uncaring" I would say. The language as some have alredy said is just stating what happens, without much emotion. The event is portrayed as something that happens in life, not as tragic.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning, that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoia and explain its affect on the poem.
The consonance "And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled" its as if the saw has a life of its own, "snarling" and "rattling", waiting to attack the boy any moment. On the other hand, these elements of sound also contribute to the "uncaring" tone of the poem, where ordinary work was being done, not dressed up with emotions.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
The ending is realistic and appropiate. While a more sentimental ending would still be realistic, it would deviate from the tone of the poem and the message on the child who was mature in a sense yet still not old enough to take on tasks such as cutting wood.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 11, 2008 11:03 PM: Message edited by: mrodriguez ]</font>
1. Identify and explain the metonymy found in line 21-22 ("Half in...all").
?as if to keep the life from spilling? refers to trying to keep the child safe from dying.
2. Can you identify the allusion in the poem? If not, do a quick web search and focus on the title.
The title is an allusion to William Shakespeare?s Macbeth. The original line says ?Out, out, brief candle! Life?s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more?. This means that life is short and unimportant. One does what he does in life, but then it dies.
3. What is the tone of this poem? Identify one element using DIDLS (diction, imagery, details, language, style) and explain briefly how it contributes to the tone you identified.
I choose language. Language in this poem is cold and scientific. It is like this for a reason. The boy has to show maturity and smartness to qualify as a responsible wood cutter. Tragically, the boy gets injured, and the reader can see that the boy is not ready for the task.
4. Review question - I think there are some powerful moments of sound in this poem, especially the beginning that contribute to meaning. Find one example of consonance, alliteration or onomatopoeia and explain its affect on the poem.
The buzz that snarled and rattled in the yard is the onomatopoeia that has powerful meaning. This sounds like an animal, most probably a snake.
5. Does the ending of this poem seem to you callous or merely realistic? Would a more tearful and sentimental ending have the made the poem better or worse?
I consider the ending of the poem realistic, yet sad at the same time. A more tearful ending would have made the poem even stronger in its message. The kid thinks he can handle the job but he cannot. He simply faces the consequences in the end.
1. the metonymy is life, which is really blood and vital fluids leaving his body, that will eventually kill him.
2. Out, Out comes from the play Mcbeth by shakespear, wich talks about the brevity of life.
3. the tone of the poem is sort of simple, almost ordinary, to show how life may be going normally but at the same time life is very fragile all the time, and there is no way to know when exactly you will die, it is something that can happen anytime, even if it doesnt feel that way. the images are normal, even cliches of the american life, the diction is also simple, and this all adds to the toine and message of the story.
4. The words snarled and rattled really give you an idea of how unstable the saw is, like a wild beast; the saw represents the everyday things that without us knowing are a risk to our lives, like driving a car or going golfing during thunder storms.
5. It really shoked me what with the tone of the poem that the boy was dead, but that really gives you a better sense of the message which is how eisily a life can end, and how things in real life usually have no previous warning.
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