Sunday, September 7, 2008

Diction

Consider: A rowan like a lipsticked girl.
- Seamus Heaney, "Song," Field Work

Discuss:
1. Other than the color, what comes to mind when you think of a lipsticked girl?
Stuck-up, sidity, always beautifying themselves i.e. make-up and hottest trends in fashion, and glamorous appereance.

2. How would it change the meaning and feeling of the line if, instead of lipsticked girl, the author wrote girl with lipstick on?
I would have used the context clues to assume rowan meant a color. A sort of white and orange color. The change would also make the quote lose description.

Apply:
Write a simile comparing a tree with a domesticated animal. In your simile, use a word that is normally used as a noun (like lipstick) as an adjective (like lipsticked). Share your simile with the class.
The apple tree as diamonded as a white rabbit.