Poetry Primer: Catachresis
Poetry Primer is a weekly web series hosted by yours truly, u/actualnameisLana.
Each week I’ll be selecting a particular tool of the trade, and exploring what it is, what it’s used for, and how it might be applied to your own poetry. Then, I’ll be selecting a few poems from you, yes, the OCPoetry community to demonstrate those tools in action. So are you ready, poets? Here we go!
This week's installment goes over catachresis.
#I. What is Catachresis?
Imagine reading “He was happy as a corpse” or “Her laughing feet fell overboard with amusement”; funny sentences with literally imaginative meanings. This kind of misapplied reasoning in poetry is known as catachresis.
It's a figure of speech where an author mixes two metaphors together in an “inappropriate” way, or “misuses” certain words by substituting one word for another.
#II. Examples of Catachresis
Shakespeare loved to use catachresis. Many of our most beloved idioms come from mixed metaphors which he brilliantly smooshed together in an unholy union. Check these out:
”Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them”
~from Hamlet
Bill the Bard starts out with a military metaphor, with “take arms against”, but just a few words later and he has jammed that metaphor right up against nautical imagery too. The cumulative effect is that in our mind’s eye we picture these troubles as if they're an invading army, but also that army has qualities of the power and inevitability of the ocean tide.
"I will speak daggers to her but use none.”
~from Hamlet
Here, Mr Shakes pairs the word “daggers” as the direct object of the verb “speak”. Since daggers cannot be literally spoken, the word “speak” is a kind of stand-in substitution for the word “throw”, or “use”. The effect here is that we can imagine Hamlet using words as if they are daggers, in an attempt to inflict pain and suffering intentionally. The phrase has become so commonplace over the last few centuries that it's now a common idiom meaning simply “to talk crap about someone / be spiteful or mean with words.” The modern slang idiom “throwing shade” has much the same meaning, and is itself another example of catachresis!
The final example I want to show you comes from one of my personal all-time favorite poets, E. E. Cummings.
The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses –
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands….
~ from somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
In this extract, he makes an illogical comparison between several images: the voice of his beloved’s eyes with roses and rain with the hands. The poet is trying to express the power of his beloved over him and her importance to him. And the effect is simultaneously magical and powerful.
#III. The Importance of Catachresis
Catachresis is often viewed as a “mistake” in other forms of literature, because it is by its very nature, an illogical construction. But in the hands of a skilled poet, catachresis can be one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Like almost nothing else, catachresis has the power to imply a heightened state of emotion, or convey extreme alienation from reality.
#IV. Catachresis in OCPoetry
Catachresis pops up fairly commonly in our little subreddit. It's such a powerful tool, most of our authors don't even realize consciously that they are using it! Because of this, some examples work well, and some examples don't. I think the best way to highlight this is to show you several examples from recent poems, and let you decide which side of the fence you think they fall on. (And yes, one of them is from one of my own poems. Shameless plug!)
The sounds of rattling suitcases
and music seeping from earphones,
~from I Think There's Nothing Stranger Than A Stranger, by u/cutebutpsych0
Showers shred only scars
Upon your eyes.
~from The Skies Were Lying by u/PaintingQuiet
I fixed myself, ramrodded
against a biting wind and
flexed my jaw,
~from The Calm Before by u/actualnameisLana
I stood up under a placid star
brimming like a corpse
~from And The Night Is Enormous by u/bluejay43
Have you noticed catachresis in an OCPoem recently? Have you written a poem using catachresis that you'd like to share here? Did I miss your favorite example of catachresis in a published poem? Send in your examples and tell us how they work and what they make you feel!
Until next week, I'm aniLana and you're not. Signing off for now. See you on the next one, OCPoets!
Posted Jun 8, 2016, 8:04 PM UTC · edited