Ordinarily, a discussion of the four forms of figurative language -- particularly metaphor and simile -- isn't too important, but the first poem in Chapter 17 of R&J utilizes one of the less obvious forms of figurative language because of leaving implicit rather than explicit one or more of the two basic parts of a metaphor or simile: the tenor (what is being spoken about) or vehicle (what the subject is compared to).

The three-step process in elucidating figurative language (see Ch. 17 of R&J):

        The elucidation of figurative language is a three-step process: (1) division of the figure of speech into the tenor* (what is being spoken about) and vehicle* (what it is compared to); (2) contemplation about how the vehicle in some way physically applies to or resembles the tenor; (3) further contemplation about the implications of the vehicle and the asserted resemblance of the vehicle to the tenor. (See chapter 17 in RJ8 on tenor and vehicle.)

        Figures of speech may have one of four forms, depending on whether the tenor (abbreviated T in the diagrams below) is explicit or implicit, and whether the vehicle (abbreviated V in diagrams below) is explicit or implicit:

First form: T = V -- Both tenor and vehicle explicit

Example from Robert Burns' "A Red, Red Rose" (in Ch. 17 of RJ8):

"O my Luve's like a red, red, rose"

                 ||                           ||

             tenor                   vehicle
 

Second form: T = (V) -- Tenor explicit; vehicle implicit

Example from Robert Frost's poem "Bereft" (speaking about the effects of wind):

Out in the porch's sagging floor
Leaves got up in a coil and hissed,
Blindly struck at my knee and missed. (lines 8-10)

(The explicit tenor is leaves; the implicit vehicle is snake.)
 

Third form: (T) = V -- Tenor implicit; vehicle explicit

Example from Keats' "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (in Ch. 17 of RJ8):

"Much <have I travell'd> in <the realms of gold>"

                        ||                                      ||

                 vehicle                            vehicle
 

(The implicit tenors are have read and literary works.)
 

Fourth form: (T) = (V) -- Both tenor and vehicle implicit

Example from Emily Dickinson's "It Sifts from Leaden Sieves":

It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood. (lines 1-2)
 

(The implicit tenor is snow; the implicit vehicle is flour.)
 
 

Summarizing the four divisions of figures of speech:

First form: T = V

Second form: T = (V)

Third form: (T) = V

Fourth form: (T) = (V)
 
 

Simple vs. compound figures of speech

        Finally, figures of speech may be simple -- T = V; (T) = V; T = (V); (T) = (V) -- or compound (the tenor and vehicle have more than one part, and each part may have explicit or implicit elements).
 

A compound figure, with all parts of the tenor (T) and vehicle (V) expressed:
 

A compound figure, with parts of the tenor (T) and vehicle (V) left implicit:
 

        An example of the more complicated compound figure of speech diagramed immediately above, with implicit elements on both the tenor and vehicle sides, occurs in the Romantic poem by Robert Burns "The Red, Red Rose" (Ch. 17 of R&J): "While the sands o' life shall run" (line 12).

Our job with this compound figure of speech with some implicit components is to ascertain what the numerator is on the tenor side, and what the denominator is on the vehicle side. We realize that the line is saying that something is to life as sands (i.e., grains of sand) are to something. We then ask what is to life, as sands are to what? (There is a resemblance here to analogies questions on tests like the SAT.)
 

Questions on the Figurative Language in Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (Ch. 17 of R&J).

1. All the foregoing discussion is applicable, rather vividly, to Keats' sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (Ch. 17 of RJ8). The sonnet has a string of vehicles, all with implicit, rather than explicit, tenors. For example, in the very opening of the sonnet, "Much have I traveled in the realms of gold"(line 1), both "traveled" and "realms of gold" are vehicles, not to be taken literally, which stand for something. What? If the speaker didn't actually hop a carriage, horse, or ship, what did he do, literally, that was like traveling? How was it like traveling? If the speaker didn't literally go to "realms of gold" in what actual physical or nonphysical sphere did he make contact from this activity that was like traveling? How in this actual activity might Keats or the speaker have made contact with physical gold? What implications does Keats suggest about the tenors through the vehicles? Similar questions arise for all the rest of the numerous vehicles in the sonnet.

2. The following is a chart of implicit tenors and explicit vehicles in the sonnet;  how should each of the tenors be filled in?
 

Tenor	Vehicle
??	have travell'd
??	realms of gold
??	goodly states
??	kingdoms
??	[have] seen
??	have been round [= journeyed]
??	western islands held in fealty to Apollo by bards
??	wide expanse ruled by Homer as demesne
??	deep-browed Homer
??	pure serene of Homer's demesne breathed by the speaker
??	hearing Chapman speak
??	watcher of the skies seeing new planet "swim" [figure of speech inside a figure of speech] into view
??	Cortez with "eagle eyes" [figure of speech inside a figure of speech] with men on Darien viewing the Pacific

3. (a) How does the octave of this sonnet use the extended metaphor of traveling? (b) How is the sestet of the sonnet based on the extended similes of astronomer and circumnavigator? How are the extended similes in the sestet interrelated, and based on a larger underlying comparison? What transition word can be found at the beginning of the sestet (this transition is technically called the "volta" or "turn")? (c) How are the octave and sestet interconnected, based on a larger underlying comparison? (d) How is there some sort of sequence or progression in the octave from realms of gold, to goodly states and kingdoms, to western islands, to one wide expanse? (e) How is there a connection, in the imagery inside of the figures of speech, that describes what the watcher of the skies is doing and observes (sestet) with what Cortez is doing and observes (sestet)? (f) What ideas does the sonnet convey about literature and reading? How are these connected to the Romantic's concern with emotion?

4 (a) How does Keats use metonymy* in lines 6 and 8? (Presumably, Homer isn't meant to be described as having a forehead that resembles a Ferengi's, if you are aware of this race of creatures from the science fiction television series Star Trek: Next Generation or Deep Space Nine.) (b) How does the poem include a metaphor, in line 10, within the simile of lines 9-10? How does the poem include a metaphor, in line 11, within the simile of lines 11-14? (c) How does the metaphor in line 11 connect with lines 9 and 14? (d) How is elevation in this portion of the sonnet related to the last part of question 3f, above?