Stylistic semasiology

(развернутая)
Sometimes a metaphor is not confined to one image but involves a number of images:
e.g. A woman is a foreign land.
Although he there settles young
The man will never understand
Its customs, politics and tongue.
A variety of prolonged metaphor is suggested metaphor. The central image is not given, we have only contributory images: e.g. "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent" — The image of the steed is not named. Such metaphors may be given in riddles.
e.g. Leaves got up in a coil and hissed,
Blindly struck at my knee and missed.
(R. Frost)
The metaphor is one of the most powerful means of creating images. This is its main function. The command of metaphor is the mark of genius. Only fresh living metaphors call forth images. Imagery is the relation between reality and the way the author sees it. Metaphor is not a displacement of words but the natural outcome of thought achieved by comparison. It is always a result of some creative process at the background of the text as a whole. You have the fusion of things that a brought together. The degree of fusion may be different and it depends very much on the syntactical function of metaphor. Genuine metaphors are mostly found in poetry and emotive prose. Trite metaphors are mostly used as expressive means in newspaper articles, in oratory. Sources of metaphors are: man and his pursuits, nature, history, mythology.
The metaphor is often defined as a compressed simile. But this definition lacks precision as metaphor aims at identifying the objects while simile aims at finding some point of resemblance by keeping the two objects apart.
Personification ("олицетворение") is a particular case of metaphor. It consists in attributing life and mind to inanimate things. Besides the actual ob­jects of Nature abstractions of the mind, such as life, death, truth, wisdom, love, evil, hope, etc. are frequently personified. Thus, per­sonification is ascribing human properties to lifeless objects.
In classical poetry of the 17^th century personification was a trib­ute to mythological tradition and to the laws of ancient rhetoric:
«How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year I»
(Milton)
In poetry and fiction of the last two centuries personification was used to impart the dynamic force to the description or to repro­duce the particular mood by which the events described are col­oured.
Personification is an important device used to depict the percep­tion of the outer world by the lyrical hero.
In most cases personification is indicated by some formal sig­nals. First of all, it is the use of personal pronouns «he» and «she» with reference to lifeless things:
«Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays her hand at our fevered head... and, though she does not speak, we know what she would say...» (Jerome).
Personification is often achieved by the direct address:
«О stretch by reign, fair Peace, from shore to shore
Till conquest cease, and slavery be no тоrе».
(A. Pope)
Another formal signal of personification is capitalized writing of the word which expresses a personified notion: ((No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet».
(Byron)
One should bear in mind that sometimes the capital letter has nothing in common with personification, merely performing an emphasizing function.
Personification is akin to metaphor — a thing or an idea is presented as a human being. There may be complete or partial personification.
e.g. "I bring fresh showers to the thirsting flowers" ("The Cloud"
by P.B. Shelly)".
Weather permitting, we shall start.