III THE SUNKEN IMAGE A Sunken image is one which powerfully affects the imagination without conveying a definite picture. It is to be distinguished from faded imagery. In the latter no definite picture is conveyed but neither is the imagination aroused. Thus the word platform, meaning a declaration. of a political party, though potentially a metaphor is generally used without metaphorical intention. It is not a Sunken image. The category is equally distinguished from the fantastic incongruities of Decorative imagery and from the more elaborate and fuily developed forms of poetic metaphor. The restraint of the figure commends it to writers of the classical school. Citing a Sunken image from Corneille, Voltaire writes that happy use of such figurative expression bequeaths the work of a poet to posterity. In Cinna the Emperor Augustus wearies of his great attainment. "Et monté sur le faîte, il aspire à descendre." Voltaire's comment is as follows: Racine admirait surtout ce vers, et le faisait admirer par ses enfants. (Voy. les Mem. de L. Racine) En effet ce mot aspire, qui d'ordinaire s'emploie avec s'élever, devient une beauté frappante quand on le joint à descendre; c'est cet heureux emploi des mots, qui fait la belle poésie, et qui fait passer un ouvrage à la postérité. The classical poet may conceal a use of metaphor, but he cannot dispense with it. No speech of emotional value can dispense with imagery. There is at least one form of imagery which appears both in the poetry of Shakespere and in the poetry of Corneille, Racine and Voltaire. An ex 76 amination of the Sunken figures in Elizabethan literature affords a liberalizing view of the period. A surprising number of Shakespere's most memorable lines are cast into the mold of Sunken metaphor. The larger part of the present section therefore will be devoted to a study of his peculiar cultivation of the more elusive form. Among his fellow poets Daniel ranks here the highest. Though Daniel is by no means severe, he is seldom bold. The sobriety of his metaphor marks him as a precursor of Dryden. Observing first some highly obscure metaphors of Shakespere and gradually passing to his more tangible figures the general tendencies of this category will rapidly unfold themselves. The first image cited in the Introduction may serve as a type here. EDGAR GLOS. Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither; And that's true too. V, 2, 9 Upon the metaphor in these lines falls not an inconsiderable part of the intellectual burden of the tragedy. It is the oracular metaphor that philosophy receives from poetry. No definite image is aroused. No attempt to elaborate the figure is profitable. To fancy that its meaning is that the much experienced man finds life more significant in the fruit than in the flower, or that the chief wisdom of life is a recognition of the inevitable, or the seasonable, only detracts from the moral dignity of the utterance, for the image includes all these meanings and much beside. Both terms of the figures are cryptic. In such an extreme vagueness Sunken imagery may be seen arising from obscurity. Several causes keep poetic metaphor below full visibility. An insufficient hint may be given from which the im age is to be aroused. Such is the case in the phrase from King Lear. A violent incongruity may render it unpleasing to image two figures completely, but pleasurable to associate their parts. A word may contain alternative images with the result that one picture blurs another present on the same film. An agreeable stimulus may be had from carrying a metaphor half way to completion when to realize it fully would be incongruous. Some images comprehend too much for fuil visualization and approach but do not attain abstraction. All these cases illustrate the definition of the category. Definition must precede interpretation, which concerns the presence of the type in elevated, serious and reflective passages, its strength, its poignancy and its vigor. Here is another figure representative of those in which no sufficient hint for complete visualization is given. Then true Pisanio, Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who long'st, . . For mine's beyond beyond! Cym. III, 2, 54 The imagination has no clue to fasten upon. The whole passage from which these lines are taken is in a pure elusive metaphor which only Imogen, Rosalind, Juliet and the elect of Shakespere's heroines have spoken. The distinction between such an ecstatic phrase as "beyond beyond" and such an intellectually refined image as that cited from Corneille is more easily made by taste than analysis. One may recognize a certain geometric simplicity in Corneille's figure, but then no briefer definition of infinity can be found than the words of Imogen. So far as a definition of imagery goes the two forms must be regarded as identical, although no two figures could arise from more divergent causes. The distinction is one of interpretation. To appreciate the emphasis thrown upon the word "shock" in the following passage it is necessary to receive the full impetus of the poet's rhetoric. These are, save one, the closing lines of King John. This England never did nor ever shall Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, V, 7, 112 The student of metaphor inquires: 'how shock' As a vessel is sunk on a reef, as a charger is staggered by a blow, or as a wave breaks against a headland? None of these comes precisely to mind and yet the word accumulates the force of all. Such language, in Voltaire's words, makes poetry for posterity. The dialogue between Brutus and Cassius is brought to a conclusion with these words: The deep of night has crept upon our talk, Caesar, IV, 3, 226 "The deep of night" is a metaphor but an impenetrable one. That it should creep upon the dialogue of the reconciled patriots makes it more mysterious still. The sum of all creeping things is metaphorically associated with impenetrable darkness. These lines are addressed by Duncan to Macbeth: Thou art so far before, The swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. I, 4, 16. Several figurative suggestions occur here, but all subside into the passing of a wing of recompense, heard but not seen. Many subdued images are to be found in the exuberant passages of the Histories. These are typical. Therein should we read The very bottom of the soul of hope. I Hen. IV, IV, 1, 49 The winter licn, who in rage forgets II Hen. VI, V, 3, 2 The second passage suggests the figurative manner of Mar. lowe. "Brush" calls up a host of delicate and vanishing images. "Brow" shows a much fuller visualization. The figrative conception of the forehead may seem too violent for complete realization but agreeable when partly realized. Shakespere uses the image variously, sometimes hinting at a severe and sometimes at an open beauty. Why here walk I in the black brow of night. John, V, 6, 17 As Philomel in summer's front doth sing Son. 102 The metaphor from King John violently spurns a thoroughgoing visualization. To walk in the black brow of night is no sober possibility. The figure is impressionistic. It prepares the mind for the story of the treacherous poisoning of the King. The five succeeding citations further illustrate the impossibility of full realization because of a confusion of ideas. O how shall summer's honey breath hold out |