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It's never good style to depart from standard usage without a good reason. It just makes things harder to read and understand. In your example, the meaning is clear, but there's nothing about it that makes it preferable to the more standard "ebony hair."
There could be many possible "good reasons" to invert word order. With that said, the fact that you ...
answered Jan 28 '19 at 21:29
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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Is there a situation where reversing the natural word order is ill-advised or completely wrong.
Yes. Consider a simple sentence such as "Mary ate an apple." Using anastrophe, you could write this as subject-object-verb ("Mary an apple ate"), object-subject-verb ("an apple Mary ate") or even object-verb-subject ("an apple ate Mary"). The last one is a bit ...
10
It is personification.
Simile and metaphor are both comparing X to Y, but in different ways.
A simile always uses "like" or "as": "The rustling of the branches was like trees whispering to each other."
A metaphor uses symbolism. It's something which can't be literal: "Their hissing gossip was the rustle of tree branches: indistinct, indecipherable, far ...
answered Dec 28 '14 at 19:11
Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
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It is done already. Consider: He strode onto the pitch in freshly pressed whites. (Cricket)
'He was clothed in brown rags' doesn't mean he was actually wearing rags.
It is quite common to say something like: He was clad in white and silver.
Consider: She was resplendent in crimson and yellow.
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Your two categories cover a whole lot of ground between the two of them. But there's at least one other usage that comes readily to mind that isn't really encompassed by either of those.
You can use metaphors to suggest the frame of mind or unique perspective of your POV character. Consider these two different descriptions of the same strand of trees in a ...
answered Mar 6 '19 at 15:23
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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You're on the right track with the guesses in your subject line.
It is a sort of antithesis, by the definition:
Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not
always, in parallel structure).
I'd say it's more precisely an example of enantiosis:
Using opposing or contrary descriptions together, typically in a
somewhat ...
7
I definitely noticed the alliterations. They stood out, and were frankly jarring. If you were writing poetry, or prose which is echoing poetry, I'd tell you to go for it, but if your point is to tell a story, then using poetic tools may get in the way.
Part of the joy of poetry is the sound of the words and how they play against each other visually and ...
answered Jan 17 '17 at 19:40
Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
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7
Both "Personification" and "Metaphor" are correct answers. Personification happens to be the best answer because it's more specific, but it's actually a type of metaphor.
Everyone knows what a person is, but do you know what personification is? Personification is a type of metaphor and a common literary tool. It is when you assign the qualities of a ...
answered Mar 5 '19 at 19:53
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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6
When it works.
It's not something that has a particular formula. Nothing to count. No threshold to pass or avoid passing.
Use your critique group or beta-readers or your favorite alpha reader. Don't ask them to look at this metaphor but, rather, to just read. If the simile sticks out like a sore thumb, they'll tell you. If they love it, they'll tell ...
answered Mar 21 '19 at 15:51
Cyn says make Monica whole
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Writing can be fine without metaphors or similes or other "literary devices". Your particular writing has problems. Normally we don't do critiques here, but I think for your example this will benefit other writers.
1) Why resort to speculation that wolves faces cannot show sadness? Wolves and dogs recognize emotions, both within their species and in humans; ...
5
The problem is more the meter of the sentence. How you say things makes as big of an impact as what you say.
The problem is furthered by the fact what you're trying to replace with "fedora hats", "mafia family". It feels bulky and cumbersome to the flow of the sentence. Most metonymies tend to be syllabalically shorter than what they ...
5
I can think of a few.
A synecdoche like "I bought a new set of wheels" where a car is actually meant can be taken literally.
Also an understatement like "It's just a scratch" when someone is injured who habitually downplays things like that can slip by when the habit isn't known.
An oxymoron like "jumbo shrimp" is so established few will notice it at all.
...
5
It's Personification.
While it is a type of metaphor, this is called personification. The intent here is simply to describe the random movement of the tree branches with a sense of purpose. Although "God" is mentioned as the teacher, the poem is not describing something holy or religious, rather the slow, intentional martial arts motions of Tai Chi.
From ...
4
Poetry forces us to see things in a different way, so it often uses language in ways that we wouldn't typically see in prose. Grammar that is technically incorrect, words used in non-standard ways, deliberate misspellings, idiosyncratic punctuation, and odd juxtapositions are just a few of the "disruptions" occasionally practiced by poets.
In this case, ...
answered Jan 25 '19 at 16:16
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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You asked (or stated):
Is there a situation where reversing the natural word order is
ill-advised or completely wrong.
Not absolutely! And by that, mean I, no of the absolute kind. :)
I think anastrophe would best be used in technical documentation.
Things like:
Window appears, click OK button do or do not. Save your settings, it
may, but if ...
4
I don't think the problem is the combination, it is the unfamiliar metonymy. The use of "fedora hats" to mean "Mafia family" is just not common enough for the reader not to be thrown out of the text, saying "What did that mean" and probably coming to a wrong answer. If a more familiar metonymy with a bit of context is used, such as:
It was election ...
4
I don't think it is an oxymoron, because the person is talking about two "different" entities. His true self which hides behind the mask. And his day-to-day self which probably has worn the mask so long that he became accustomed to it, and he became the mask.
In general there are obviously no things that are not allowed, especially in lyrics/poetry. But ...
3
The original Spoonerisms were accidental slips of the tongue and became a source of ridicule. Deliberate ones are either humorous or offensive - as the second example you cite is intended to anger the fans of the other team.
Most spoonerisms take two words and turn then accidentally into two other words. If I were reading something and found elvitating ...
3
A metaphor allows you to explain something complex, abstract or unfamliar to the reader in a way that they have a good chance of understanding or relating to. You can also use them to evoke sensory memories to better convey a more realised experience, humans rely extensively on episodic memory and metaphors play into this:
Sam followed the sound of ...
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I don't think it's an oxymoron. Sure thing, you have chosen a strange mix of images to evoke - mainly due to the contrast between "cradling" and "rocked".
But as far as I read it, it's a legitimate metaphor: the ship in this case is not bigger than a child in a cradle compared to the storm outside. The juxtaposion of the single elements may seem oxymoronic ...
answered Jan 25 '19 at 13:57
Liquid - Reinstate Monica
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3
One of your responses to a comment:
For me, alliteration has the same function as a simile or a metaphor; makes the prose "livelier".
Regardless whether the prose is "lively" or not, people will still think it jarring or too "purpley" or have no reason to be included. Alliteration, in particular, is a fairly blunt tool. It stands out. It can be used ...
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I suspect you mean allegory. It is an ancient device that can be traced back to Homer.
It allows for a deeper meaning to be inserted without necessarily announcing it.
In the novel The Leopard, there is a woman who comes to the MC and he only realizes too late that she is death. He has come to enjoy her visits and leaves his life calmly.
Sometimes ...
3
I think this is a matter of opinion; but you come close with In fact, not every person using the expression would be aware of its provenance.
It becomes an "expression" or "colloquialism" when it starts being used as a figure of speech by people that heard it (obviously) but have no idea where it came from, or who authored it, and just don't care.
In order ...
3
Writing is not real life. It is words on a page arranged to produce an effect, express a truth, or meet any of the many other possible goals of writing. So neither the non-naturalistic eloquence of some writing or the rough-edged bluntness of other writing is the point. The point is whether or not the desired impact is produced in the reader.
In your ...
answered May 13 '19 at 16:01
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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3
More explicitly stated, the metaphor is that the trees move to and fro in the wind because God (using the wind) is teaching them Tai Chi.
The imagery is the trees of the forest moving in unison like we see a group of people in the park move in unison when being led in a Tai Chi class. God is the instructor leading the trees.
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Writers are not mathematicians or logicians. Mathematics and logic have very strict rules to convey narrowly defined concepts. On the other hand, writers strive to communicate ideas and emotions that are all over the the place. For writers, if the reader "gets it" then the communication succeeds. Thus, different purposes, different rules.
Literature is rift ...
3
Metaphors and personifications are wonderful figures, adding beauty and interest to writing, and often (especially in the case of metaphors) helping to explain the unknown in terms of the known. But as your editor points out here, it is possible to come up with a novel ('creative') metaphor or personification that detracts from rather than adds clarity. And ...
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If you write with a POV character (e.g. first or third person POV) your descriptions should always be colored by what that character is thinking and feeling.
For example, if the character is driving her car through a neighborhood and this is where she grew up and she knows everyone and has memories from many parts of the place, the description will be of one ...
2
The word choices you make have to work for your story. An alliteration is a tool, like a rhyme, and if you use it without a purpose, it will sound strange and unnatural, if not jarring.
Why do you use them? To show off your eloquence? To set the tone of your prose? To illustrate personal quirks of a character (not the case in the excerpt given, just in ...
2
The best example I can think of is "Flip a car." It can be taken as it was fixed up and sold for profit or wrecked, but either way the car is gone.
"What happened to your old Camry?"
"I flipped it"
"Oh, how much did you get from it?"
"Enough to buy this Mustang"
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