Student Question
What are the figures of speech used in the poem "An Ordinary Day" by Norman Maccaig?
Quick answer:
In "An Ordinary Day," Norman MacCaig employs various figures of speech to highlight the beauty in everyday scenes. He uses personification, as in "small flowers were doing their level best to bring to their kerb bees," and metaphors, such as "long weeds in the clear water did Eastern dances." Similes appear with comparisons like "bees like aerial charabancs." The poem also features a distinctive style of reversing simple phrases to provoke thought, such as "the light glittered on the water or the water glittered in the light."
In "An Ordinary Day," the poet describes a number of ordinary phenomena of nature that he saw when he took a walk. Some of these things are:
*"The light glittered on the water"
*"Cormorants [a type of bird] stood on a tidal rock
With their wings spread out,
Stopping no traffic"
*"Various ducks
Shilly-shallied [moved in an undecided way] here and there"
*"Small flowers" attracted bees
*"Long weeds in the clear water" swayed in the wind
*"A cow
Started a moo but thought
Better of it"
The poet concludes with the observation:
how ordinary
Extraordinary things are or
How extraordinary ordinary
Things are
The poet seems to be asking: Are these beautiful sights really extraordinary, but we think they are ordinary because we do not pay enough attention to them? Or, are all ordinary things really extraordinarily beautiful, if we only would pay attention to them?
This style of turning...
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around simple phrases to create questions is a primaryfigure of speech in this poem. Other examples are:
*I took my mind a walk
Or my mind took me a walk
*The light glittered on the water
Or the water glittered in the light.
*And my mind observed to me
Or I to it
The poet also uses more conventional figures of speech; some examples are:
PERSONIFICATION(speaking of non-human objects as if they were human):
Small flowers
Were dong their level best
To bring to their kerb bees
Flowers don't consciously try to bring bees to themselves (at least I don't think they do!)
METAPHOR (a comparison that does not use the word "like" or "as"):
Long weeds in the clear
Water did Eastern dances
Weeds don't actually dance the way people do; they appear to be dancing as the wind causes them to sway.
SIMILE (a comparison that does use the word "like" or "as"):
Small flowers
Were dong their level best
To bring to their kerb bees like
Aerial charabancs
A charabanc was a kind of open-topped horse-drawn bus that was common in England in the 1920's and '30's. The poet is comparing the flight of the bees to the movement of charabancs.