SEVEN TYPESOF AMBIGUITY By the Same Author SOME VERSIONS OF
PASTORAL POEMS Chatto T MnJus THE GATHERING STORM Faber 5 Faber
Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1949 Chatto and Windus
LONDON Contents CHAPTER I Page i The sorts of meaning to be
considered the problems of Pure Sound and of Atmosphere. First-type
ambiguities arise when a detail is effective m several ways at
once, e. g. by com parisons with several points of likeness,
antitheses with several points of difference p. 22, comparative
adjectives, subdued metaphors, and extra meanings suggested by
rhythm. Annex on Dramatic Irony p. 38. CHAPTER II Pagpfi In
second-type ambiguities two or more alternative meanings are fully
resolved into one. Double grammar in Shakespeare Sonnets.
Ambiguities in Chaucer p. 58, the eighteenth century, T. S. Eliot.
Digressions p. 80 on emendations of Shakespeare and on his form The
A and B of C. . CHAPTER III Page 102 The condition for third-type
ambiguity is that two apparently unconnected meanings are given
simultaneously. Puns from Milton, Marvell, Johnson, Pope, Hood.
Generalised form p. in when there is reference to more than one
universe of discourse allegory, mutual comparison, and pastoral. Ex
amples from Shakespeare, Nash, Pope, Herbert, Gray. Dis cussion of
the criterion for this type. CHAPTER IV Page 133 In the fourth type
the alternative meanings combine to make clear a complicated state
of mind in the author. Complete poems by Shakespeare and Donne
considered. Examples p. 145 of alternative possible emphases in
Donne and Hopkins. Pope on dowagers praised. Tintern Abbey accused
of failing to achieve this type. vi CONTENTS CHAPTER V Page 155 The
fifth type is a fortunate confusion, aswhen the author is
discovering his idea in the act of writing examples from Shelley or
not holding it all in mind at once p. 163 examples from Swinburne.
Argument p. 166 that later metaphysical poets were approaching
nineteenth-century technique by this route examples from Marvell
and Vaughan. CHAPTER VI Page 176 In the sixth type what is said is
contradictory or irrelevant and the reader is forced to invent
interpretations. Examples from f Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Tennyson,
Herbert p. 183, Pope, Yeats. Discussion of the criterion for this
type and its bearing on nineteenth-century technique. CHAPTER VII
Page 192 The seventh type is that of full contradiction, marking a
divi sion in the authors mind. Freud invoked. Examples pp. 198-211
of minor confusions in negation and opposition. Seventh-type
ambiguities from Shakespeare, Keats, Crashaw, Hopkins, and Herbert.
CHAPTER VIII Page 234 General discussion of the conditions under
which ambiguity is valuable and the means of apprehending it.
Argument that theoretical understanding of it is needed now more
than previ ously. Not all ambiguities are relevant to criticism
example from Jonson p. 242. Discussion of how verbal analysis
should be carried out and what it can hope to achieve. PREFACE TO
THE SECOND EDITION THE first and only previous edition of this book
was pub lished sixteen years ago. Till it went out of print, at
about the beginning of the war, it had a steady sale though a smajl
one and in preparing a second edition the wishes of the buyers
ought to be considered. Many of them will be ordering a group of
books on this kind of topic, for a library, compiled from
bibliographies some of them maybe only put the book on their list
asan awful warning against taking verbal analysis too far. Anyway,
such a buyer wants the old book, not a new one, even if I could
make it better. On the other hand, there was obviously room to tidy
up the old one, and I would not want to reprint silently anything I
now think false. It seemed the best plan to work the old footnotes
into the text, and make clear that all the footnotes in this
edition are second thoughts written recently. Sometimes the
footnotes dis agree with the text above them this may seem a fussy
process, but I did not want to cut too much...
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