Questions tagged [allusions]
Questions about references to other works, external incidents, etc. in literature. Use this tag with the relevant author and work tags if applicable.
72 questions
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What are the allusions in Dana Gioia’s poem “The Underworld”?
Dana Gioia’s poem The Underworld is about a trip to Hell (on the Western Line of the London Underground).
In his book Meet Me at the Lighthouse, he gives some notes on this poem, which say
This ...
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Which part of the Bible supposedly prophesies a time when everything would be lush but man wouldn't be able to use any of it?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), one of the persons interviewed by Svetlana Alexievich says,
Many years ago, my grandfather read in the Bible that there would come a time on earth when ...
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Which part of the Bible supposedly talks of a leader with a mark on his forehead?
In one of the early chapters of Svetlana Alexievich's Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), a woman is cited saying the following (translation by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait, Penguin, 2016, page ...
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Is the miracle in Sarojini's story an allusion?
In chapter 38 of Maryse Condé's L'Évangile du nouveau monde, Pascal, the main character, remembers a story that Sarojini had told him about a strike by untouchables in India (possibly in Jaipur):
Un ...
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Is the 'Quincey's moat' referenced in Edmund Blunden's 'Almswomen' a real place?
Edmund Blunden's poem 'Almswomen' begins:
At Quincey's moat the squandering village ends,
Does 'Quincey's moat' refer to a real place?
The only notable Quincey I know of is Thomas De Quincey, the ...
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Which saying or proverb is Stendhal referring to in this passage from "Le rouge et le noir"?
The following passage from chapter XVI of Book I of the novel Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black) by Stendhal refers to "un dicton de province", that is, at some kind of saying or ...
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What does the expression "Mignon country" refer to in Elsschot's "Cheese"?
I'm reading Willem Elsschot's novel Cheese in a French translation by Xavier Hanotte. In chapter 3, I have found an expression that I believe it can be translated as "Mignon country" (...
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Who is “very fond of bearing false witness” in Byron’s “Don Juan”?
Here’s a stanza from canto I of Byron’s Don Juan, published in 1819. The narrator has been surveying the talents (or lack thereof) of his fellow-poets, and comments:
Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby’...
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Does "Two legs good, two legs bad" from "Smiley's People" allude to George Orwell's "Animal Farm"?
From John Le Carre's Smiley's People:
Returning to bed, he opened a copy of Cobbett’s Rural Rides and tried to read it while he loosely pondered, among other weighty matters, his sense of civitas and ...
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What are these allusions to other poems in Louis MacNeice's poem "The Gardener"
Louis MacNeice's poem "The Gardener" (1939) contains the lines:
He would talk to amuse the children,
Or the robin waiting for worms
Perched on the handle of the spade;
Would remember ...
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What is a Pillycoddian gesture?
From "Jo's Boys," by Louisa May Alcott...
'A true woman, and a born sailor's wife! You are a happy man, Emil, and I'm sure this trip will be a prosperous one,' cried Mrs Jo, delighted with ...
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What are "the feelings of an Emma towards her Henry"?
In Jane Austen's Persuasion, when Louisa has her accident, and her friends and family are figuring out who's going to stay with her, we have this quote from Anne:
She endeavoured to be composed, and ...
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Is the story of Jill and Eustace meant to evoke that of Cain and Abel?
Towards the beginning of The Silver Chair, Eustace and Jill get into a little fight which culminates in Eustace falling off the cliff to his apparent death.
“What are you doing, Pole? Come back — ...
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Meaning of "Rustum" in Trollope's "Orley Farm"
Trollope in Orley Farm refers to "the wisest Rustums of the law." Who was the original Rustum?
He had left that congress, though the wisest Rustums of the law from all the civilized ...
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Reference to Novalis in Ghérasim Luca's poem "La Poésie Pratique"
Ghérasim Luca's poem "La Poésie Pratique" / "Practical Poetry" contains the following lines:
En pratiquant le bouche à bouche de mot à mot
de « feu » le mort à « feu » vif
d' « ...
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Who are the 'sweet Saterian dames'?
I came across a beautiful (and subtly extremely rude!) poem called 'A Present to a Lady' the other day, penned by that most prolific of poets, Anonymous. I think I understand all the references - ...
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Which poet explained 'why sweet Hesper glows'?
I came across a rather good poem by Michael Field (actually a pseudonym for an incestuous aunt-and-niece literary double act) the other day, which begins 'Adown the Lesbian vales'. It's just a bit too ...
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'Wild-bee hours' and 'wild-parrot days' in Sarojini Naidu's "A Rajput Love Song"
Sarojini Naidu's poem A Rajput Love Song has the stanza:
Haste, O wild-bee hours, to the gardens of the sunset!
Fly, wild-parrot day, to the orchards of the west!
Come, O tender night, with your ...
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What is the "love-god's string" in Sarojini Naidu's "A Song in Spring"?
Sarojini Naidu's "A Song in Spring" begins like this:
Wild bees that rifle the mango blossom,
Set free awhile from the love-god's string,
Wild birds that sway in the citron branches,
Drunk ...
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To what Mrs. Partingtons and to what martyrs of Chicago does Tucker allude in the first chapter of 'Individual Liberty'?
Benjamin Tucker writes in the first chapter, page 15, of Individual Liberty:
And it is an ideal that can be as little advanced by
the forcible expropriation recommended by John Most and
Prince ...
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What is the "black sphinx" in Greek magical papyrus IV?
In the Greek magical papyri (Papyri Graecae Magicae or PGM), lines 2307–2314 of papyrus IV were translated into English by Hans Dieter Betz as follows:
The hair of a virgin cow, the seed of Pan
Fire ...
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Who is Mrs Muggeridge in this essay on Kafka?
In a 1987 essay, Kafka at Las Vegas, English playwright Alan Bennett writes about Franz K from various everyday perspectives, both historical and contemporary. It's a way of sidling up to the Czech ...
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What deeds are emblematized by the cypress and myrtle in Byron’s “The Bride of Abydos”?
Byron’s poem The Bride of Abydos (1813) begins:
Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?
What deeds are these trees emblems of? What myth ...
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Biblical reference in Francis Bacon's essay: Background and significance
The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason; and his sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he ...
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In 《猫城记》 (Cat Country), is 迷叶 an allusion to opium?
I'm re-reading the Chinese novel 《猫城记》 by 老舍. On page 33, referring to the cat people of cat country, it says:
五百年前，他们是种地收粮，不懂什么叫迷叶。忽然有个外国人把它带到猫国来。最初只有上等人吃得起，后来他们把迷树也搬运了来，于是大家全吃入了瘾。不到五十年的工夫，...
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Of what trumpery, of what dormant statute does Swift write in "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity"?
An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity begins with following:
It is further objected against the Gospel system that it obliges men to the belief of things too difficult for Freethinkers, and ...
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Allusions in a double dactyl by George Starbuck
In June 1969, George Starbuck published the following double-dactyl in The Atlantic:
SAID
J. Alfred Prufrock to
Hugh Selwyn Mauberly,
“What ever happened to
Senlin? Ought-nine.”
“One with the passion ...
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What passage of the Book of Malachi does Milton refer to in chapter VI, book I of "The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce"?
In book one, chapter VI, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:
If Solomons advice be not overfrolick, Live joyfully, saith he, with the wife whom thou lovest, all thy dayes, for ...
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Why specify Mr. Berry looked into the brass like Snow White's queen in Ellison's "The Black Ball"?
My literature class assigned "The Black Ball" by Ralph Ellison. The strange white man offering a card for a union meeting has just left, and John's boss Mr. Berry has come to check on his ...
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What is the significance of the dogs being named Hamlet and Ophelia?
In The Dragon Heir, from Cinda Williams Chima's The Heir Chronicles, Madison has two golden retrievers who are named Hamlet and Ophelia. One does not name anything "Hamlet" in a book by ...
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"Hamlet" reference in "Crime and Punishment": translator's invention?
I am reading Pevear & Volokhonsky's translation of Crime and Punishment. In part II, chapter 6, Raskolnikov is at the "Crystal Palace" restaurant, where he runs into the clerk Zamyotov ...
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Is this an allusion to Shakespeare's Tempest
In Jean-Luc Godard's film Hélas pour moi at time stamp 1:16:38 one of the characters reads from a text in French which the subtitles translate to:
Thus disappeared all the worlds,
the ports and ...
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Is this line from "Stalker" an allusion to Shakespeare?
In Tarkovsky's Stalker one character states:
Well done, citizen Shakespeare. It’s frightening to go forward; it’s a shame to go back.
This further reminded me of the passage from Hart Crane's ...
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Is the "wall of solitude" a reference to Pink Floyd's "The Wall"?
Death and the Penguin contains the following quote:
He thought suddenly of Nina and her saying that they had been seeing Sergey off at the station. So he had, after all, gone to Moscow, without so ...
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Why is Happy Buddha playing the "Titanic" theme in "How to Be Chinese"?
This is some description of the restaurant Happy Buddha from the short story "How to Be Chinese". Bolding is mine.
Look around to see what it’s like in a real Chinese restaurant. The ...
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What does “Hoti’s business” refer to, in Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’?
Robert Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’, first published in Men and Women (1855), describes some of the grammarian’s achievements:
He settled Hoti’s business—let it be!—
Properly based Oun—
...
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Did O. Henry allude to Tom Sawyer in "The Gift of the Magi"?
Sidney Porter (O. Henry) was a contemporary of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). They died the same year; Porter attended Clemens' funeral a few months before his own death.
Was Porter referring to Twain's ...
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Allusion in Nabokov's Pnin
In chapter 3, section 6 of Nabokov's Pnin, the main character is carrying a reference work "mainly devoted to Tolstoyana" across the Waindell campus when he drops it by accident:
Pnin, on ...
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Who are these historical people alluded to by R.A. Lafferty?
In "The Six Fingers of Time", by R. A. Lafferty, available for free here on Project Gutenberg, there is a claim that having an extra finger or toe is associated with genius. The text gives ...
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In Mary Tighe's Psyche, what is the gemstone referred to by allusion?
In Mary Tighe's "Psyche", Canto 1, lines 413 - 414 (see the text), a gemstone is referred to by allusion to an episode in mythology.
To quote,
And there the gem which bears his luckless ...
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What is the meaning of the reference to a young contemporary author?
At the beginning of Jorge Amado's novel The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray (A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água, 1959), the narrator seems to allude to something a young contemporary author ...
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Is there anything deeper about the comparisons between Queenie and the Red Queen in "Code Name Verity"?
There's a sequence in Code Name Verity where one of the main characters, called "Queenie" here, is compared to the Red Queen. The time period is WWII. A future version of Queenie is the one &...
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In "Sordello", how do we know the rejected spirit is Shelley?
In book I of Sordello (1840) by Robert Browning, the speaker addresses a group of spirits,
Summoned together from the world’s four ends,
Dropped down from heaven or cast up from hell,
To hear the ...
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Is this Atlas Shrugged quote a deliberate Biblical reference?
Matthew 25:21 (NIV):
His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's ...
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Is there any significance in the cry "Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi" in Prince Caspian?
In Prince Caspian, there's a passage where Aslan apparently uses his power to summon up the spirit of Old Narnia, leading to the eventual defeat of the Telmarines with very little bloodshed. A wild ...
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Is Keats' swan with "neck of arched snow" an allusion to Milton's "swan with arched neck"?
I discovered something quite interesting today in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Here is Milton (this is the Archangel Raphael relating to Adam and Eve the creation of the world):
...
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Do the opening lines of Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking” contain a biblical reference?
Robert Frost's poem ‘After Apple-Picking’, collected in North of Boston (1914), is a well-known poem on man’s encounter with the natural world, probing the dilemma of his existence.
The first two ...
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Does Muriel Barbery's title "The Elegance of The Hedgehog" reflect knowledge of Archilochus' aphorism?
Does Muriel Barbery's title The Elegance of The Hedgehog reflect knowledge of Archilochus' aphorism? Is there information or proof that Barbery had Archilocus' aphorism in mind?
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How do we know that Shelley's "Adonais" refers to Byron and Moore?
In every site I've seen that analyzes Shelley's Adonais, they all agree that in the following stanza the "Pilgrim of Eternity" refers to Byron. Here is one example:
From stanza 30 to 35, ...
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Identifying allusions in Eric Jarosinski's poem "TWEET"
The attached picture is a poem by Eric Jarosinski in which he masterfully alluded to some literary and artistic works.
Transcription of picture:
TWEET
The Tweet is not a genre. Rather: it
is a frame. ...
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