Humor Devices.

Question

Humor Devices.

lena772 · Answer

Read the following Shakespearean sonnet.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.;
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
     And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
     As any she belied with false compare.

The lines "I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound; / I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress when she walks treads on the ground" employ a humor device. Identify the device used and discuss its effect on the meaning and tone of the poem.

lena772 · Answer

@beccaboo333 @esshotwired @e.mccormick

lena772 · Answer

@wolfe8

e.mccormick · Answer

OK, so, any idea which device?

e.mccormick · Answer

Some notes on it: http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets/section9.rhtml http://www.shmoop.com/sonnet-130/

lena772 · Answer

Hyperbole?

e.mccormick · Answer

Well, that would be a massive exaggeration. "That test was so hard it killed me!"  Well, the person is not dead so hyperbole.

lena772 · Answer

I'm not sure of the humor device.

e.mccormick · Answer

Well, those two review sites talk about how Shakespeare used this sonnet to make fun of love poems.  So, if you made fun of an ad in the same way, it would be something like this:

This toothpaste dose not really make your teeth sparkle at all.  In fact, they will still be as dingy as ever.  And if you don't stop eating that candy, it won't matter how much you brush with our basically average product!

So if you made a spoof ad like that, what might people call it?

lena772 · Answer

Parody?

e.mccormick · Answer

Yah, I think that is what it would be.  A parody of the love sonnets.

e.mccormick · Answer

LOL... OK, so I was going to link my favorite literary terms definitions site.... guess what they use as an example of parody! http://literarydevices.net/parody/

lena772 · Answer

Just my luck! Thank you for everything :)