NCHS AP English Language

Part 8 "The First Lowering" Emily Rew

Once again, as in the soliloquy of Starbuck, Melville attempts to write a passage in Shakesperian form. Five of the tropes that are found in "The First Lowering" Chapter 48 are:

Alliteration- This is found throughout the passage but one very noticable alliteration I found was " bowls in a boundless bowling green"

Personification- Personification is refering to an object or animal as a person. This is found int he passage when Ishamael says " the ivory Pequod bearing down upon her boats with outstretched sails." One obvious clue this is a personification is the use of "her", but also the outstretched sails symbolizes that the Pequod can reach out to the small boats, like a giant mother.

Simile- There are also many similies in the passage one of which is "like a wild hen after her screaming brood." This also agian implies the maternal characterisitics of the pequod, and this similie helps the reading to put a vivid picture in thier mind.

Metaphor- "the white curdling cream of the squall" is a metaphor that means the foaming waves were like actual curdles of cream and can suggest that the reader can actual visualize curdling cream to get a better mental picture of the situation

Onomotopoeia- "the waves curling and hissing around us", "the surging, hollow roar they made" This refers to waves as making certain sounds.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 10:55 PM