Genre Studies - Unit- III Allusion
7. ALLUSION
Allusion -An implicit
or indirect reference to another work of literature, historical or mythical or
event.
Example;
Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain,
While Anna begged and Dido raged in
vain
(Pope -The Rape of the Lock)
Here is an allusion to the
dilemma of Aeneas, the hero of Virgil’s “Aeneid”. Aeneas falls in love with
Dido, the queen of Carthage. Dido implores Aeneas to marry her and get settled
permanently in Carthage. Aeneas was in dilemma. He had a noble duty to find out
new territory for the Trojans. But he was also deeply in love with Dido. He was
torn between love and duty. However, he finally decides to continue his voyage
in search of a permanent empire for the Trojans. This dilemma of Aeneas has
been recalled here to suggest the intensity of Belinda crisis.
More example:
1.
“ The winged boy I
knew;
But who wast thou, O
happy, happy dove?
(Keats:”Ode
to Byche”)
The “winged boy” is an
allusion to cupid, the god of love.
2.
“Perhaps the selfsame
song that found a path
Through the sad heart
of Ruth, when, sick for home’s
She stood in tears
amid the alien corn;
(Keats:”Ode
to a nightingale)
These lines allude to
the suffering of Ruth, a character of the Old testament
3.
Here is another
example:
‘Imagine with thy
self, courteous
Reader, how often I
the wished for the Tongue of Demasthenes or Cicero,
That might have
enabled me to
Celebrate the praise
of my own dear native country in style equal to its Merits and Felicity.
(Swift:
Gulliver’s Travels, Part III
The allusion in these lines is to the power of eloquence of demosthers and cilero.
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