1. Emerson, Thoreau, and the Nature of Metonymy
... . My loftiest thought is somewhat like an eagle that suddenly comes into the field of view, suggesting great things and thrilling the beholder, as if it were bound hitherward with a message for me; but it comes no nearer, but circles and soars away, growing dimmer, disappointing me, till it is lost behind a cliff or a cloud. Spring is brown; summer, green; autumn, yellow; winter, white ... ; November, gray. (60) In its disjunction and compression, the pure metonymy of the final sentence above focuses the shifting ground of the larger passage; Thoreau explores the compressed, contingent na...
- Word Count: 9971
- Approx Pages: 40
- Grade Level: Undergraduate