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Position:Home>Poetry> What exactly makes a poem allegorical?Question: What exactly makes a poem allegorical!? I'm having a hard time understanding the deffinition of an allegory, "a narrative in verse or prose in which the literal events consistently point to a parrallel sequence of symbolic ideas!."
Can someone give me an example of this or something!? Thankyou!Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: "The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form!. A story, picture, or play employing such representation!. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Herman Melville's Moby Dick are allegories!. The principal technique of allegory is personification, whereby abstract qualities are given human shape—as in public statues of Liberty or Justice!. An allegory may be conceived as a metaphor that is extended into a structured system!. In written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its persons and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale: each character and episode in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), for example, embodies an idea within a pre‐existing Puritan doctrine of salvation!. Allegorical thinking permeated the Christian literature of the Middle Ages, flourishing in the morality plays and in the dream visions of Dante and Langland!. Some later allegorists like Dryden and Orwell used allegory as a method of satire; their hidden meanings are political rather than religious!. In the medieval discipline of biblical exegesis, allegory became an important method of interpretation, a habit of seeking correspondences between different realms of meaning (e!.g!. physical and spiritual) or between the Old Testament and the New (see typology)!. It can be argued that modern critical interpretation continues this allegorizing tradition!. See also anagogical, emblem, exemplum, fable, parable, psychomachy, symbol!. For a fuller account, consult Angus Fletcher, Allegory (1964)!."Www@QuestionHome@Com "The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy!." The story is an example which helps the reader view real life!. "Allegories are composed of several symbols or metaphors!. For example, in The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, the character named Christian struggles to escape from a bog or swamp!. The story of his difficulty is a symbol of the difficulty of leading a good life in the “bog” of this world!. The “bog” is a metaphor or symbol of life's hardships and distractions!. Similarly, when Christian loses a heavy pack that he has been carrying on his back, this symbolizes his freedom from the weight of sin that he has been carrying!. "Www@QuestionHome@Com an allegory is basically an extended metaphor - using one symbol to describe something that may only be loosely connectedWww@QuestionHome@Com |