Allusion help?

Question

We're writing a sonnet for English and we need an literary allusion.

1.) Is 'World War Three' an allusion?
2.) If not..how would I incorporate an allusion into my poem about "The Future" and what are some examples of allusions that might fit around my topic?

Answer 1

No. WW3 isn't an allusion. You could allude to the damage done w/out description, you could allude to a bleak future w/out saying directly. If I were to say that a blanket of warm cotton like snow drifted deadly on the earth, I could be alluding to the fallout for example.
The first answer is wrong because: ALLITERATION not allusion
Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "wild and woolly," or the line from Shelley's "The Cloud": The second is partially wrong because she is referring to a simple overt allusion only.

Answer 2

A literary allusion is a reference to another work. In the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", for instance, the first mate of the Nautilus introduces himself by saying "Call me Ishmael." This is an allusion to "Moby Dick" - it's the first line in the book.

There are no hard and fast rules for literary allusions. Generally speaking, you'll use a line that's recognizably from another work but fits into your own. Less commonly, you'll give a character a name from another work, or put your characters into a situation that's obviously from another story.

In your poem, you could probably even get away with an allusion to "Star Trek", although that's more of a pop culture allusion.

Answer 3

some thing it really is declared or written it really is meant to make you imagine of a particular element or individual The movie is done of allusions to Hitchcock. Her novels are packed with literary allusions.

Answer 4

"World War" might be allusion. Allusion is the use of words that all begin with the same sound.

"When William Webster's World War was won" would be an example of allusion...oh...and lookie there, it's also in iambic pentameter, making it the perfect line for a sonnet.

You don't have to have EVERY word starting with the same sound...just most of them!