I agree -- this has been a fun and useful discussion. Harry, I always
thought the opposite of "hyperbole" was understatement, but darned if
I know its fancy title. One of my favorite examples has always been
Wordsworth's "But she is in her grave, and oh/ The difference to me."
By the way, Milton does something new and interesting with transferred
epithets in Lycidas (and elsewhere) -- e.g., "gust of rugged
wings...beaked promontory" -- almost a t.e. chiasmus!
Happy new year to all,
Susanne
On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:30:00 -0800
"Harry Berger, Jr." <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks esp. to Dorothy and Andrew for a great exchange. It was short
>but I learned a lot. Made me think again about Sp's uses of the
>subclasses of hyperbole called auxesis and meiosis. Incidentally,
>what's the opposite of hyperbole? I wish it were hypobole, but
>that's too silly-sounding to be true. -h
>
>
>> My thanks to everyone who replied both on and off the list. Andrew,
>>your observations are gorgeous and are surely spot on; I may have to
>>quote you. Spenser's transferred epithets fascinate me partly
>>because their effects in English are more striking than they would be
>>in more highly inflected languages, where freely-floating epithets
>>are a dime a dozen. Spenser seems to have been pleased to find that
>>with this particular figure of speech, the lesser flexibility of his
>>native English was actually a boon. As with allegory itself, the
>>very stubbornness of the material--its reluctance to name what it is
>>naming--becomes a virtue.
>>
>>Dorothy
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