Monday, September 29, 2008

Lolloping Sirens


“Such are the visions which proffer great cornucopias full of fruit to the solitary traveler, or murmur in his ear like sirens lolloping away on the green sea waves, or are dashed in his face like bunches or roses, or rise to the surface like pale faces which fishermen flounder through floods to embrace” (57).

Here Woolf uses diction to create imagery that creates allusions. Woolf selects words that will stand out from the others because of their originality and the unusual flow they have with the rest of the sentences. The words in this passage are of a flowery language that becomes bulky at times, but serves to create imagery that helps the readers to understand the points Woolf is trying to make. An allusion created by this passage is to the sirens in the Odyssey. The sirens sit on rocks in the sea, and when travelers pass by they are drawn to the beauty of their singing.

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