Allusion
IntroducedWhat can be alluded to
- Allusions in a text can reference literary works including myths and sacred texts; other works of art including paintings and music; or people, places or events outside the text.
- Three categories, and the third is much wider than students expect.
- A place name, a date, a public figure — each can be an allusion.
An allusion is a doorbell; the reader who recognises the house knows which door just opened.
Select all the categories the CED says allusions can reference.
The third category is much wider than students expect.
An allusion imports
- An allusion brings the referenced thing's associations into the poem without spending lines on them.
- That is its economy: two words can carry a whole story the reader already knows.
- So the analysis asks what was imported, and what the poem does with it.
An allusion brings the referenced thing's ____ into the poem cheaply.
Two words can carry a whole story the reader already knows.
You do not need to recognise every allusion
- An exam passage will not depend on knowledge you were never taught.
- If a name is unfamiliar, read what the poem tells you about it — texts usually supply enough.
- Guessing at a half-remembered myth is riskier than reading the line in front of you.
Which category of allusion is this?
Sort each reference by the CED's three categories.
If you half-remember a myth, guessing is better than reading the line closely.
An exam passage will not depend on knowledge you were never taught.
Do not guess at a half-remembered story. An exam passage will not require outside knowledge you were never taught, and the text usually supplies what you need about the reference. A confident wrong claim about a myth costs more than a careful reading of the line in front of you.
A poem that names a famous reunion and then does not deliver one is...
Always ask whether a poem borrows an association or contradicts it.
Allusions can be used against themselves
- A poem may invoke a story in order to refuse it.
- Naming a famous reunion and then not delivering one uses the allusion as a measure of the difference.
- So always ask whether the poem is borrowing the association or contradicting it.
Put the allusion pass in order.
The last question is where an allusion analysis stops being a footnote.
An allusion pass
- Name what is referenced and which of the three categories it falls in.
- Say what associations it brings — using what the poem itself supplies, where possible.
- Then ask whether the poem borrows those associations or turns against them.
A poem names a river famous in myth for carrying the dead. The poem then describes children swimming in it on a hot afternoon. The allusion is used against itself: the reader arrives expecting solemnity, and the ordinary afternoon is what the poem is actually about.
Allusions may reference literary works including myths and sacred texts; other works of art including paintings and music; or people, places or events outside the text. An allusion imports associations cheaply. Read what the poem supplies rather than guessing, and ask whether it borrows the association or turns against it.