Prompt #09: Metonymy
Today’s prompt brought to us by Shanna Germain:
We hear a lot about similes and metaphors when it comes to poetry, but we don’t often hear about metonymy. Metonymy is, according to Wikipedia, “a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept.” A good example is “drinking” which originally meant “to consume any liquid” and now typically means “to consume alcohol.”
Then read Out, Out by Robert Frost, as an example of a poem using metonymy.
Now, write your poem, either using metonymy for your subject matter or else talking about the idea of how one thing morphs into another through language and expression.
***
Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.
Let the Wild Poeming Being!
Ok attempted to understand the prompt this morning without the aid of caffeine.
Here’s day nine
http://mizadventurez.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-nine.html
April 9, 2011 at 5:05 am
Lol. My caffeinated head is still working on it so no worries.
April 9, 2011 at 6:58 am
Skipping the prompt again and posting something I wrote in a workshop last night: http://dorlamoorehouse.com/2011/04/09/napowrimo-day-9-3/
April 9, 2011 at 5:12 am
That’s great, Dorla. One of my favourites of all the good ones I’ve read here.
April 9, 2011 at 10:34 am
am making an attempt now. and want to apologize to everyone because I’m so far behind in reading everyone’s poems. Part of my commitment this month–to myself–was to read everyone’s poems. Yeah, insane, I know. But there’s been so many good ones!
April 9, 2011 at 6:39 am
Okay. I needed to get this done early. [insert strangled sound here]
http://erobintica.blogspot.com/2011/04/stepping-out-day-9-poem.html
April 9, 2011 at 7:17 am
Very true.
April 9, 2011 at 10:36 am
Hahaha. This sounded like such a good idea when I came up with it a month ago, and now I can’t even begin to think of something to write…. Eeps.
April 9, 2011 at 8:41 am
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Here is my poem to the prompt: http://umaathreya.blogsome.com/2011/04/09/the-old-house/
April 9, 2011 at 9:04 am
Holy metonymy batman. Today’s attempt.
http://yearofthebooks.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/poem-a-day-9/
April 9, 2011 at 9:15 am
Jesus Christ, Shanna!
April 9, 2011 at 10:55 am
Is that your poem, Bill?
April 9, 2011 at 11:36 am
lol
April 9, 2011 at 12:25 pm
WOW Shanna – that was hard to read. As a heart attack survivor, and just losing my dad to one in February, AND just having my heart ripped out by the love of my life…
Still, amazingly done.
April 12, 2011 at 6:35 am
Progression
A miss who is good for a smile.
A lake blue and clear and not vile.
A chat that turns ugly and bile.
A scene that is all in a pile.
A trial that may take awhile.
A lawyer unlikely to file.
A defender not known for her guile.
A lass whose metonymy shows style.
A miss is as good as a mile.
Mary Beth Frezon 9 April 201
April 9, 2011 at 9:53 am
sorry – that’s all she wrote.
April 9, 2011 at 9:55 am
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For Desiree’s birthday (but not much metonymic –eep).
FINISTERRE
We’ve journeyed together ten year’s time,
certain only of our hands in joining, of mingled
breath, to arrive at last at what we discover
as simply an end of places, a sere scant refuge,
to discover kelp shadowed by trembling wings,
and a silence loud with incantations.
Here we are proffered no promise
but salt and low sky. So take my hand;
begin again. Set foot with me upon living water.
April 9, 2011 at 10:12 am
Lovely poem, Bill.
April 9, 2011 at 10:43 am
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I’ve finished my entry for today. I think the poem as a whole is metonymic, but I find it difficult to recognise that particular figure of speech:
http://wp.me/pbg4K-3l
April 9, 2011 at 10:22 am
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2011/04/comrade-in-arms.html
April 9, 2011 at 10:39 am
Oh, nearly a day late and probly more than a dollar short, but here is today’s:
Spring Tide
Red crane lifted boat
in cradle-slung beak, turned,
but the sea hung back
(No, I don’t see the metronym either!)
April 9, 2011 at 11:04 am
Day nine of my Poem-A-Day path: Not really to any prompt, other than my teenage daughter’s casual dismissal to the whole Woman’s Rights/Liberation movement that came about during my life.
To A Young Woman: Don’t Look!
Was told,was told:
XX chromosomes
can’t do math.
Guys don’t make passes at girls
who wear glasses.
Don’t look outside the
corral of marriage.
Don’t think about
becoming a priest!
A man, God’s (capital G) man
can excommunicate you
right out of the house.
Hey, you need this product
to be desirable!
Am saying and saying:
My daughter,
don’t accept rage, blame,
even indifference lightly; instead,
fix a spotlight on them.
Reveal them for the slumps, the slaps,
the piecemeal put-downs
that hound you so often,
you no longer notice.
April 9, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Not sure I got it
Rock Candy Night
April 9, 2011 at 2:12 pm
I decided to put concrete shoes on subtlety and throw it in the lake.
WHEN I SAY “YOUR WORDS,” I MEAN “YOU.”
As boots are made for walking
and daggers made to kill
as words are meant for talking
the confuson hounds us still;
Do the words do all the talking?
Does a dagger make the stab?
Can a boot make prints unaided
by a foot? a leg? a man?
Where do we stop?
It’s turtles all the way up.
(“And if I seem to act unkind
It’s only me, it’s not my mind
that is confusing things.”)
April 9, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Long day. Best a tired mind can do. Nice prompt, though, Shanna. (I like a challenge.)
Into Ploughshares
If only tongue could tell,
in subtle words, a story
to which you might lend an ear,
perhaps that lamb and lion
might lay down in the dark
forests of the night,
and lay to rest the endless
march to death.
April 9, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Kinda stumbled onto a metronym without thinking:
http://lovesgoodfood.com/jason/posts/Under_water/
I think the idea’s decent, but the expression needs work.
April 9, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Lost in the ether
words meaning else
can’t
quite
figure
this
out
My misunderstanding
April 9, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Nick Gerund knew that the time had come
to lay the hammer down
Metallic and meddling, yet it shone true mettle
While he drove at something dancing around words
Punching the clock of obsequiousness
Ground into hamburger
April 9, 2011 at 6:55 pm
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My offering for today:
http://jacquezyon.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/poem9-tapestry/
April 9, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Consideration
First thing is, you separates the good meats
From the bad meats
And give the bad meats to the hogs
They don’t know no better so don’t think on it too much
Then save the good meats for cousins and good company
Of all sorts, church people and such
Give smart attention to the shoes you might wear
Prepare for talking with a visit to the barber
And pick out some long words
With some news of the day, such as floods
But remember there is no need to take the chair for a cut
The barber himself will understand you dropping in for a visit
Even still, a money tip is a good gesture always
Emily, at the Stop and Shop, knows how to tie a tie
Welcome each with a handshake and your eye
Offer punch, point to the good meats
But do not linger too long on any one arrival in the hall
Circle the room, keep everyone’s eye, and check the locks twice
And when the gathered are complete, take the axe from drawer
Then move slowly, with deliberation, and smile
Next thing is, separate the good meats from the bad meats
April 9, 2011 at 8:38 pm
This prompt has outed me for my lack of technical training. I think I got there, though.
Sunday morning talking heads
Gas about the latest bespoke crisis
From the folks who brought us
Death panel calumny and
Birther clacques
I drink my coffee
Eat my bagel
Listen to the other
Clack, the one who works with Click
Gas about the price of
Gas
April 9, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Myday 9 offering:
Road
There are these moments when roads come back to me,
the roads we’ve trodden and then forgotten, still
surviving in a strange form of memory,
mirage metonymy. A long bright downhill
I saw on your back, a fork on a page of a book, –
they reach me like drafts of wind past the windowsill
and fade like details of a dream when I look.
I wonder where we are on those roads today
beyond all these thunderclouds, what turns we took.
(The downpour made us stay and washes away
the dust of yesterday from the empty street
imperfectly reflecting the flux of gray.)
Come feel the solid sidewalk under your feet,
and breathe the scent of wet concrete fleeting and sweet.
Cherry blossoms are unfolding in southern Tohoku now. When we talk about “hanami” (literally “blossom viewing”), it means cherry blossom viewing in most parts of Japan. I wondered if there can be a “private” metonymy that’s sharable on its own. I guess every poet has certain words in his/her lexicon whose functions are more metonymic than metaphoric to him/her, if not universally accepted. Thanks Shanna, this was a deep-digging prompt.
April 11, 2011 at 9:01 am