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"tenor"
Definition: The underlying idea or the principal subject that is the meaning of a metaphor.
(I. A. Richards, The Philosophy of Rhetoric. See vehicle.)
Examples
- In the first stanza of Abraham Cowley's poem “The Wish,” the tenor is the city and the vehicle is a beehive:
WELL then! I now do plainly see
This busy world and I shall ne'er agree.
The very honey of all earthly joy
Does of all meats the soonest cloy;
And they, methinks, deserve my pity
Who for it can endure the stings,
The crowd and buzz and murmurings,
Of this great hive, the city.
(Abraham Cowley, "The Wish")
- In William Stafford's poem "Recoil," the first stanza is the vehicle and the second stanza is the tenor:
The bow bent remembers home long,
the years of its tree, the whine
of wind all night conditioning
it, and its answer--Twang!
"To the people here who would fret me down
their way and make me bend:
By remembering hard I could startle for home
and be myself again."
 Pronunciation: TEN-er |
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