NAVIGATION: Index of Introduction to Poetry Materials Index of Dr. Weller's Class Materials

Exercise:
Figurative Language Two: Paradox, Overstatement, Understatement, Verbal Irony, and Allusion



For each poem find the poetic feature listed after each poem, and then explain what that feature adds to the meaning:
"Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson
--paradox
NOTE: An essential part of explaining a paradox is showing how the apparent contradiction is not really a contradiction; this is called "resolving the paradox."
Sonnet 138 ["When my love swears that she is made of truth"] by William Shakespeare
--paradox
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
--overstatement
"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell
--understatement
"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy
--allusion
--verbal irony
"‘Out, Out—’" by Robert Frost
--allusion
--verbal irony
HINT: See Macbeth, 5.5.7-28