Meaning of an apostrophe?

Question

In poetry, I know that an apostrophe is talking to someone that cannot talk back. But when you refer to something as something else, is that also an apostrophe? For example, in a poem I've read, houses are referred to as tin boxes. Would that be an apostrophe? or something else? thanks!

Answer 1

The figure of speech Apostrophe is talking to something that isn't a person:



O cuckoo, shall I call thee a bird,

Or but a wandering voice?



Referring to something as something else is most often a metaphor:



To help me through this long disease, my life.



(Pope calls his life a 'long disease' because he suffered chronic ill-health from childhood on).



But when the words exactly mean something other than they say, it is called a 'kenning'.



Just pass me one of your coffin nails.



('coffin nail' is just a fancy way of saying 'cigarette'. Everybody knows that a 'coffin nail' is a cigarette, so this is a kenning).

Answer 2

Mike has the metaphor part right, but he forgot that apostrophe has two meanings. If you say, "My house is a tin box," that is metaphor. If you say, "Oh house! why are you like a tin box?" that is an apostrophe because you are speaking to the house. Usually there is something explicit to show who or what the author is addressing. It isn't necessarily an absent person, just a clear turn from a general audience to a specific one.

Answer 3

That is a metaphor. I think sometimes it can refer to an aside that a character makes just in the air (like to no one or to the audience). There's one in Romeo and Juliet during the balcony scene. I could be mistaking it for something else, though.

Answer 4

...I don't think you know what apostrophe means. An apostrophe is one of these: '



What you're talking about is a metaphor.