Transferred Epithet Definition and Examples

A transferred epithet is a little known—but often used—figure of speech in which a modifier (usually an adjective) qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually describing. In other words, the modifier or epithet is  transferred  from the noun it is meant to describe to another noun in the sentence.   Transferred Epithet Examples An example  of a transferred epithet is: I had a wonderful day. The day is not in itself wonderful. The  speaker  had a wonderful day. The epithet wonderful actually describes the kind of day the speaker experienced. Some other examples of transferred epithets are cruel bars, sleepless night, and suicidal sky.   The bars, presumably installed in a prison are inanimate objects, and therefore, cant be cruel. The person who installed the bars is cruel. The bars merely serve to foster the persons cruel intentions. Can a night be sleepless? No, its the person experiencing a night during which he or she cannot sleep who is sleepless (in Seattle or anywhere else). Likewise, a sky cant be suicidal—but a dark, ominous sky might add to the depressed feelings of a suicidal individual. Another example would be: Sara has an  unhappy marriage. Marriage is ephemeral; an intellectual construct—it can neither be happy or unhappy because a marriage is not capable of having emotions. Sara (and presumably her husband), on the other hand,  could  have an unhappy marriage. This quote, then, is a transferred epithet: It transfers the modifier, unhappy, to the word marriage. The Language of Metaphors Because transferred epithets provide a vehicle for  metaphoric language, writers often employ them to infuse their works with vivid imagery as the following examples show: â€Å"As I sat in the bathtub, soaping a meditative foot and singing...it would be deceiving my public to say that I was feeling boomps-a-daisy.From Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, by P.G. Wodehouse Wodehouse, whose work also includes many other effective uses of  grammar  and  sentence structure, transfers his meditative feeling to the foot he is soaping. He even makes clear that hes really describing his own feelings of melancholy by noting that he could not say he was feeling boomps-a-daisy (wonderful or happy). Indeed,  it was he who  was feeling meditative, not his foot. In the next line, silence  cannot be discreet. Silence is a concept indicating a lack of sound. It has no intellectual capacity. Its clear that the author and his companions were being discreet by staying silent. Were coming close to those little creeks now, and we keep a discreet silence.From Rio San Pedro, by Henry Hollenbaugh Expressing Feelings In this 1935 letter to fellow British poet and novelist Stephen Spender, essayist/poet/playwright T.S. Eliot  employs a transferred epithet to make his feelings clear: You dont really criticize any author to whom you have never surrendered yourself...Even just the  bewildering minute  counts. Eliot is expressing his vexation, probably to criticism of him or some of his works. Its not the minute that is bewildering, but rather, its Eliot who feels that the criticism is bewildering and likely unwarranted. By calling the minute bewildering, Eliot was trying to elicit empathy from Spender, who as a fellow writer, would likely have understood his frustrations. Transferred Epithets vs. Personification Dont confuse transferred epithets with personification,  a figure of speech  in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.  One of literatures best examples of personification is a descriptive line from the poem Fog by acclaimed American poet  Carl Sandburg: The fog comes on little cat feet.†Ã‚   Fog doesnt have feet. Its vapor. Fog cant come, as in walk, either. So, this quote gives fog qualities it cannot have—little feet and the ability to walk. The use of personification helps to paint a mental picture in the readers mind of the fog stealthily creeping in.