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Euphemism in Poetry

Tone/Mood

Sound

  • Disgust is shown through the harsh "g" sound- Grandeur with his wise grimace

  • Confidence in his belief using strongly spoken words- “Goodbye”, “proud” and “going” in “Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home”

Poetry Questions

  • “Grandeur with his wise grimace”

  • “Goodbye”, “proud” and “going” in “Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home”
  • Who is the speaker?

  • What is the occasion?

  • What is the central purpose?

Euphemism Definition

Central Purpose

Occasion

Speaker

Acceptance of death/dying- "saying good-bye"

  • To express an attitude or idea

  • What society values (material goods, wealth) v. What really matters (the afterlife)

Person who is unhappy with the world and despises society, and is ready to die.

A euphemism is a phrase that talks about a negative phrase/word in a more polite manner, without distorting its meaning.

Tone

Stanza Two

Stanza One

Diction

  • feeling of serenity/peace- safe, home, Greece and Rome, holy

  • arrogance: speaker's belief he is superior- tread, pride, laugh, lore

  • loathsome/disgust with society- flattery, grandeur, wealth

The speaker is happy being able to leave an unfriendly world that is full of pride.

The speaker describes all the unpleasantness he will not miss once he’s gone by saying goodbye to them.

Example Three

Example One

Example Two

  • His father is between jobs- euphemism for saying he's unemployed.
  • In literature
  • Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • "the bad place"- euphemism for hell.
  • In poetry
  • My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
  • “This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.” - Euphemism for death.

Structure

The poem is structured with 4 stanzas.

  • safe, home, Greece and Rome, holy

  • tread, pride, laugh, lore

  • flattery, grandeur, wealth

Stanza Four

Stanza Three

The speaker describes where his grave will be- in a beautiful place surrounded by nature, and that he will be at peace there.

The speaker will be humbled and safe when he dies, and thinks mankind in general is foolish for chasing after material goods during their life, when none of that will matter once in the afterlife.

Literary Devices

Appeals to the Senses

Imagery

Visible imagery

  • Visualize where the speaker wants to be, gives a better understanding of speaker- Yon green hills, a secret nook, a pleasant land, and arches green
  • Reality of society, gives an understanding as to why the speaker is unhappy with life on earth- crowded halls, court and street, frozen heart, hasting feet

My Literary Device-

Euphemism

Good-Bye

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home:

Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.

Long through thy weary crowds I roam;

A river-ark on the ocean brine,

Long I've been tossed like the driven foam;

But now, proud world! I'm going home.

Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face;

To Grandeur with his wise grimace;

To upstart Wealth's averted eye;

To supple Office, low and high;

To crowded halls, to court and street;

To frozen hearts and hasting feet;

To those who go, and those who come;

Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home.

I am going to my own hearth-stone

Bosomed in yon green hills alone,-

A secret nook in a pleasant land,

Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;

Where arches green, the livelong day,

Echo the blackbird's roundelay,

and vulgar feet have never trod

A spot that is sacred to thought and God.

O, when I am safe in my sylvan home,

I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;

And when I am stretched beneath the pines,

Where the evening star so holy shines,

I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,

At the sophist schools, and the learned clan;

For what are they all, in their high conceit,

When man in the bush with God may meet?

  • "Good-Bye, proud world! I'm going home"

  • Euphemism for death
  • Yon green hills, a secret nook, a pleasant land, and arches green
  • crowded halls, court and street, frozen heart, hasting feet

Other Literary Devices

  • Alliteration: "Flattery’s fawning face" and “Grandeur with his wise grimace"
  • Signifies his disgust and loathsomeness

  • Repetition of “(Good-bye,) proud world! I'm going home”
  • Enforces speaker's disapproval of society, and confidence in their beliefs.

  • Rhetorical question at end of poem: “For what are they all, in their high conceit, when man in the bush with God may meet?”
  • Reflect- leaves readers wondering about their (dis)agreement with the idea portrayed.
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