Literal Meaning:
The dictionary or primary meaning of a word or sentence. [see Figurative Language]
Litotes:
A figure in which the negative statement suggests a very strong affirmative. Examples:
"He is not a bad student" means "He is a good student".
"Let not Ambition mock'their useful toil." (Gray: "Elegy") It means "Let Ambition praise their useful toil".
"Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray." (Gray: "Elegy") It means "Their sober wishes were always fulfilled."
"But Shadwell never deviates into sense." (Dryden : Mac Flecknoe)
It means "But Shadwell remains senseless forever".
"And my whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at."
(Orwell: "Shooting an Elephant")
It means every white man had to struggle to retain his dignity in the East.
Machinery:
The supernatural agents used in an epic or a mock-epic. For example, the whole battalion of the sylphs, gnomes and nymphs under Ariel's command in The Rape of the Lock is called the machinery of it. [see Epic]
Metaphor:
An implicit comparison between two different things. It is a compressed form of simile. "Liza is a rose" is an example of metaphor as there is an implied comparison between the colour, softness, fragrance, beauty, etc. of the rose and those of Liza. It becomes a simile if the comparison is made explicit: Liza is like a rose.
In "Sonnet XVIII", the phrase, "eternal summer," in the line, "But thy eternal summer shall not fade" is a metaphor that suggests "never-ending youthfulness".
Here is another example:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
(Shakespeare: As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)
The "world" has been compared to "a stage" to suggest short life on earth. "Entrances" and "exits" are also metaphors which imply birth and death respectively.
The "unweeded garden" in the following lines is another famous metaphor which means the ethically corrupted or morally polluted world.
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! oh fie, fie, 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed:
(Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act I, Scene II)
More examples are given below. The metaphors are in italics:
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.
(Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act V, Scene V)
"She's all states, and all princes, I,"
(John Donne: "The Sun Rising")
"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"
(Shelley: "Ode to the West Wind")
"With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."
(Martin Luther King: "I Have a Dream")
