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conceit |
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conceit, in literature, fanciful or unusual image in which apparently dissimilar things are shown to have a relationship. The Elizabethan poets were fond of Petrarchan conceits, which were conventional comparisons, imitated from the love songs of Petrarch, in which the beloved was compared to a flower, a garden, or the like. The device was also used by the metaphysical poets metaphysical poets, name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th cent. The term was first used by Samuel Johnson (1744). The hallmark of their poetry is the metaphysical conceit (a figure of speech that employs unusual and paradoxical images), a reliance ..... Click the link for more information. , who fashioned conceits that were witty, complex, intellectual, and often startling, e.g., John Donne's comparison of two souls with two bullets in "The Dissolution." Samuel Johnson disapproved of such strained metaphors, declaring that in the conceit "the most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together." Such modern poets as Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot have used conceits. conceit Literary an elaborate image or far-fetched comparison, esp as used by the English Metaphysical poets Conceit Ajax (the lesser) boastful and insolent; drowns due to vanity. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 14] fleshly poet; “aesthetically” enchants the ladies. [Br. Lit.: Patience] thinks he is a wonderful person. [Br. Lit.: Sketches by Boz] pompous, self-satisfied clergyman who proposes to Elizabeth Bennet. [Br. Lit.: Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice] self-aggrandizing, pedantic soldier-of-fortune. [Br. Lit.: Legend of Montrose] contemplates his own greatness. [Br. Lit.: Bleak House] ignorant and bloated constables. [Br. Lit.: Much Ado About Nothing] idyllic poet of no imperfections. [Br. Lit.: Patience] inflated self-image parallels bloated body. [Br. Lit.: Henry VIII] pats his back with “What a good boy am I!” [Nurs. Rhyme: Mother Goose, 90]
baseball pitcher is a chronic braggart and self-excuser suffering from an exaggerated sense of importance. [Am. Lit.: Lardner You Know Me Al in Magill III, 1159] self-important coxcomb full of hollow, ostentatious valor. [Br. Lit.: Henry V] Olivia’s grave, self-important steward; “an affectioned ass.” [Br. Lit.: Twelfth Night] regards exile and wife’s concubinage as honor. [Br. Opera: The Duchess of la Valliere, Brewer Hand-book, 721] flower of conceit. [Plant Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 170; Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 171–172] symbol of vanity and pride. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 176] scorpion stung him to death for his boasting. [Rom. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 971] too clever prince; arrogance renders him unpopular. [Children’s Lit.: Prince Prigio] had a “consciousness of immeasurable superiority” over others. [Br. Lit.: Pickwick Papers] boasted he could subdue women with eyes. [Br. Lit.: Barnaby Rudge] How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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But beware how you presume on an appearance of indifference, which is nothing but conceit in disguise. Fretted conceit and suppressed envy--perhaps your fathers' conceit and envy: in you break they forth as flame and frenzy of vengeance. It is not impossible that this conceit occurred to Hawthorne before he had himself seen the Old Man of the Mountain, or the Profile, in the Franconia Notch which is generally associated in the minds of readers with The Great Stone Face. |
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