Can somebody give me examples of literary allusions?

Question

This is urgent.

Answer 1

A CARAFE, THAT IS A BLIND GLASS - Gertrude Stein

A kind in glass and a cousin, a spectacle and nothing strange a single hurt color and an arrangement in a system to pointing. All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling. The difference is spreading

The weak semantic and formal cohesion are hallmarks of a modernist text. The weak coupling in this example puts a further strain on the reader.


Her smile - Tim Love


Her smile as she falls asleep -
a bird always
landing on its shadow.


Weak coupling (drawing on the genre but not on any particular text) and strong semantic cohesion typifies the lyric poem.

Animal Lover - Tim Love


Dolphins always smile my way on salmon-
Chanted evenings and hawkmoths wink all night.
O stuffed dodo do what you done done done
Before, you toucan with your songs delight.
Yes, I confess my sole intent; to wit
To woo beasts two by two, pander and bare,
Cheer the worm's turn, watch horses get a bit
On the side, then, with swallowed pride, home where
My faithful quick brown fox jumps just for me.
How long can this go on? Is my fate sealed?
Oh deer, paw me. But if I must I'll flea -
I'll go to the dogs or pick up booze-swilled
Slugs then flock to packed terraces and crow
"O earwig, O earwig, O earwig O!"


The form and thematic continuity do little to disguise the lack of higher level cohesion. The extensive use of puns to convey references means that coupling isn't wholly at the expense of the primary text. The references lead nowhere and don't interlink; if a few are missed it's not the end of the world. They're one-way - the poem doesn't suck significance in from distant texts. The combination of weak cohesion and numerically strong coupling is common in ludic and post-modernist work.

Paradox - Tim Love

You haven't left her, only she moves,
and when she has stopped moving
it's as if you left each other
and it all makes sense on paper
until the platform moves,
and you are not moving.


Those who know about relativity (the Twin Paradox in particular) have a distinct advantage when reading this piece because attention isn't drawn to the allusions. The semantic cohesion and a measure of pattern give others some chance of satisfaction, enough to make them think that they haven't `missed something'