June 20, 2012
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Metonymical Verse
I have a soft spot for Metonymy.
Metonymy, in case you were sleeping through English class, is when an associated thing is used in place of the real subject. Most commonly, the part is used in place of the whole. When an official asks, “What does Downing Street say?” he isn’t really asking what the literal street says. He’s asking what the British government based there would say. The US does the same thing with “The White House” as a metonym for the functions housed by the White House. Properly speaking, if the thing is only a subcomponent of a whole, then what we have is synecdoche, but metonymy is the more general case.
Anyhow, I love songs about things which are really about other things.
C’mon Sea Legs, pull yourself together
You’re gonna have to learn to like
The rockin’ of the waves, whatever.
C’mon now, it’s not meant to be easy
But you’re not gonna spend your life
Being sick over the side.Would you look at yourself, staring,
Hypnotized, into the deep, green sea.
A breath of wind could blow you away,
So hang on to your head.
A pinch of fog, you think you’re going blind,
And an inch of snow, you’re buried alive.
All weak in the knees, and tense in the hand,
You tear your eyes away or it’ll never get better.
