Poetic devices 10: Allegory

You've hear of metaphor, and you may well have used it in your writing. Metaphor in poetry is very powerful, giving the reader a deeper insight into some profound meaning that must be conveyed. Wouldn't it be great if you could extend that metaphor to an entire narrative or context? Well... you can! 

That's exactly what allegory can achieve. An allegorical narrative is one in which the metaphor extends to encompass characters, objects or places. The entire story becomes one great metaphor. Beneath the surface of the appearance or shape of the words (morphology) and their sounds (phonetics) lies a deeper, symbolic meaning (semantics) to be grasped and understood. The poem or story becomes the vehicle to convey the message through the allegory.

There are many examples of allegory in literature, found in ancient Greek mythology. Take for example Homer's epic poems Odyssey, which is not really about a journey at all, but more a pithy commentary on human emotion and life. The voyage through the land of the lotus eaters represents temptation and illicit pleasure while anger is personified in the Cyclops. 

Allegory can also be seen in the parables of Jesus Christ, who represented His gospel message as seeds that could be sewn on fertile land (which grew into faith) or strewn on stony ground (which failed to produce the fruit of faith) or even to fall in among thorns and weeds (where it was stifled and died). Search through the synoptic gospels and you will find hundreds of extended metaphors. 

There are many examples of extended metaphor or allegory in more recent literature. Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory of the Russian revolution of 1917, where the autocratic Czar (the farmer) was overthrown by the common people (the animals) only to be ruled even more brutally by the Bolsheviks (the pigs). 

In poetry, allegory is common. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a simple religious allegory of sin and redemption with the albatross representing Christ. The albatross is sent to save the ship, but the mariner kills it with his cross-bow. This is pure symbolism disguised as a story. 

More recently allegory is rife in popular culture, whether in Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Lost; or in blockbuster movies such as Gravity or Interstellar, the extended metaphor continues to work its magic. Think about what each story represents, and then see if you can develop your own message based on an allegory. 

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Repetition and refrains
4. Alliteration
5. Assonance
6. End Rhymes
7. Internal Rhymes
8. Rhythm and Tempo
9. Enjambment

Image from Ben Templesmith on Flickr

Writing Collaborative Poetry

Isn’t it nice to have a friend to call when things get rough? Is it not good just to vent thoughts and having some kind of validation as to what you are thinking…? Maybe even better to have someone put things into a perspective you never thought of before to form a broad enough conclusion ..? 

This metaphor presents an overwhelming aspect of collaborating poetry with other like minded poets. 

Just as when you are calling on a friend with a conversation to talk about a subject… a collaborative poem draws two expressions together about a subject for one final absolute conclusion!

This happened to two friends in Somerset in 1795. Poets  Samuel Taylor Coleridge  and William Wordsworth got to be great buddies. Samuel even moved closer to William in Grasmere to be able to talk poetry and swap ideas. Now that’s friendship! The culmination of their collaborative book entitled “Lyrical Ballads” started what many thought to be the beginning of the Romantic Era 

Even more than that,.. their collaboration came to involve the talented Robert Southerly, among others. These came to be known as the “Lake Poets”, named for the Lakelands of Northwest England. Their like minded aspirations matched their introspective ideas of love and nature in an almost conversational delivery well worth reading.

The idea of stepping off of a narrow path onto a multi-laned freeway of ideas reduces a one sided direction. It inspires poets to yield to many more opportunities to accelerate into the passing lanes of new perspectives.

Poet  Jen Hofer also adds a great point in on article on collaborations from the Poetry Foundation,  “ … collaborative processes create conflicts, frictions, difficulties, and discomforts that wouldn't exist if I were working alone. Moving through those challenges is as crucial an element of the work as whatever legible "products" the work produces.” 

Conflicts of ideas can often have the most obscure positive effects on the final draft of a collaborative poem.

Surrealist French poets Andre Breton , Paul Eulard , and Rene Charl  wrote a line by line publication over five days in 1930 game referred to as the “Exquisite Courpse ”, a collage of intense words and images. My colleagues and I wrote our own version of the “Exquisite Courpse” in my last year as an editor of our school literary magazine at Western Illinois University. The “game” turned out so prolific, I decided to publish it exactly as it was. An honest poignant collaboration between friends.

Poets are not hermits, as many would seem to imply with the stereotype (though some do prefer to be alone). Poets are people, and people at some time have to communicate. Collaborations are a wonderful way to take an interesting conversation and turn it into art.

I invite you to comment on this article with whatever feelings or experiences you may have had as an artist with collaborations. Thank you for reading!

Matt Elmore

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_poetry

https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/coleridge-and-wordsworth/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2014/03/on-collaboration