We include the passage again, for quick reference:
The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything grey. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved lead that has cooled and set in the smelter’s mould. The sky seemed a grey mantle. Flights of troubled grey fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled grey vapours among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters, as swallows over meadows before storms. Shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come.
What kinds of tropes are used to describe the landscape?
In the main, the figures employed are similes and metaphors, plus one image which is not obviously either one or the other. Among the similes we find: “the sea … like waved lead,” “The sky seemed a grey mantle,” “as swallows over meadows”. These similes are often intermingled with metaphors, often in the same sentences, like “undulated into long roods of swells” and this somewhat troublesome image: “Flights of troubled grey fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled grey vapours among which they were mixed”.
We know that the similes are similes because they use words that suggest comparison: “like,” “as”. The metaphors serve the same purpose of creating an idea of what the landscape looks like. The fact that the sea is “undulated into roods of swells” (which means that the waves look like rows of long pipes laid together side by side), might as well have been expressed by a simile, but for the fact that there isn’t room for another “as” or “like” in the subclause where the image is.
The trickiest image is the one where troubled, gray birds are juxtaposed with troubled, gray bits of fog. One the one hand, the image rests on resemblance (both are “grey” and “troubled,”) but on the other hand: how does the narrator know that the “fowl” are troubled? And how can “vapours” be troubled? Judging by the fact that birds and mists are distinctly different and that there is no “as” or “like” in the sentence, we may conclude that this is a metaphor.
Finally, “Shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come” is an interesting metaphor in that “shadows” appears first as literal dark spots on the landscape, and then a second time, as a metaphor for bad things that will happen later in the story – in the same sentence. Since only the vehicle of the metaphor is present, this is an implicit metaphor.
What can you say about syntax and diction in this passage?
The sentences are long and often contain subordinate clauses, making them complex and slow to read. In addition, the sentences are heavily laden with similes and metaphors. The word “grey” is frequently repeated. Other words that stand out include “troubled,” “fitfully,” “storms,” “shadows” and “fixed”.
What are the effects of the tropes, the syntax and the diction on the mood of the passage?
The effect, in short, is one of melancholy and foreboding. Many different figures of thought are employed to create this mood. In terms of diction and syntax, the repetition of the word “grey” is especially notable. One important simile compares the sea to melted and then stiffened lead, creating a rather worrying idea of the sea as a place from which there is no escape (sailing in lead can’t be easy). Another important simile utilises a metaphor (birds = fog) as well as personification (fog = troubled) and an extension of the simile with a comparison of swallows flying low over meadows. The latter simile is related to the one where the sea is likened to lead, because meadows are equally difficult to sail as is hardened metal. At least in a sailboat. Finally, the shadow metaphor (which works because it comes at the end of the passage) drives the point home that things won’t end well.