LibGuides: Creative Writing: Poetry: Trope

Trope

(literally a turn) The element of poetry that includes all forms of comparison and transfer of meaning by means of which language means doubly. Since the late Middle Ages, trope has been associated with figures of thought rather than figures of speech. But rather than being completely separate, figures of thought connect with these figures of speech at the points where words achieve the greatest physicality owing to meter and rhyme and the layered doubleness of meaning known as pun (Kinzie, 1999).

Resources for Trope

I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like by Mardy Grothe
ISBN: 0061358134
Publication Date: 2008-08-05
InI Never Metaphor I Didn't Like, quotation maven Dr. Mardy Grothe fixes his attention on the three superstars of figurative language—analogies, metaphors, and similes. The result is an extraordinary compilation of nearly 2,000 feats of association that will entertain, educate, and occasionally inspire quotation lovers everywhere.

In this intellectual smorgasbord, the author ofOxymoronicaandViva la Reparteeexplains figurative language in a refreshingly down-to-earth way before taking readers on a tour of history's greatest word pictures. In chapters on wit, love, sex, stage and screen, insults, politics, sports, and more, you will find quotations from Aristotle and Maya Angelou to George Washington and Oprah Winfrey.
Figures of Speech by Arthur Quinn
ISBN: 0879051213
Publication Date: 1983-09-01
Writing is not like chemical engineering. The figures of speech should not be learned the same way as the periodic table of elements. This is because figures of speech are not about hypothetical structures in things, but about real potentialities within language and within ourselves. The "figurings" of speech reveal the apparently limitless plasticity of language itself. We are inescapably confronted with the intoxicating possibility that we can make language do for us almost anything we want. Or at least a Shakespeare can. The figures of speech help to see how he does it, and how we might. Therefore, in the chapters presented in this volume, the quotations from Shakespeare, the Bible, and other sources are not presented to exemplify the definitions. Rather, the definitions are presented to lead to the quotations. And the quotations are there to show us how to do with language what we have not done before. They are there for imitation.
More than Cool Reason by George Lakoff; Mark Turner
ISBN: 0226468127
Publication Date: 1989-02-15
"The authors restore metaphor to our lives by showing us that it's never gone away. We've merely been taught to talk as if it had: as though weather maps were more 'real' than the breath of autumn; as though, for that matter, Reason was really 'cool.' What we're saying whenever we say is a theme this book illumines for anyone attentive." — Hugh Kenner, Johns Hopkins University

"In this bold and powerful book, Lakoff and Turner continue their use of metaphor to show how our minds get hold of the world. They have achieved nothing less than a postmodern Understanding Poetry, a new way of reading and teaching that makes poetry again important." — Norman Holland, University of Florida
Metaphors Dictionary by Elyse Sommer (Editor); Dorrie Weiss
ISBN: 1578591376
Publication Date: 2001-08-01
Rates a recommendation to lovers of language. – William Safire, New York Times. A masterful metaphor, like a picture, may be worth a thousand words. By comparing two unlike objects or ideas, it illuminates the similarities between them, accomplishing in a word or phrase what could otherwise be expressed only in many words, if at all. Metaphors Dictionary is an expansive collection of 6,500 colorful classic and contemporary comparative phrases (with full annotations and a complete bibliography of sources). The Metaphors Dictionary revisits most of the great and respected names in the annals of cultural literacy while dipping into current literature and media sources. And now available for the first time in hard cover, it’s bound for heavy duty at a price that’s hard to beat.
A Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors by P. R. Wilkinson
ISBN: 0415075238
Publication Date: 1993-01-22
In this original Thesaurus, the author's definition of "metaphors" is usefully broad and covers a wide variety of figurative language. Offering explanations and derivations, the volume contains around 20,000 traditional English sayings - including metaphors, similes, proverbs, catch phrases, idioms and slang expressions. With scholarly analysis and commentary, the material presented is comprehensive, and includes much which cannot be found in any other printed source. All the expressions have achieved a common currency, even if confined to a locality, particular trade or social group.
Avoiding `literary' metaphors, the Thesaurusreflects folk wisdom as encapsulated in a living language, and from this perspective it will be of interest to all folklorists and cultural historians. The Thesauruswill also be an important resource for dialectologists and language enthusiasts.

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