The poetry unit that we are covering this year in English has been a lot different from past poetry units I have studied. Usually, we cover the same literary terms and concepts that we have since 5th grade, but this year Mr. Youngs has introduced us to several new literary terms making things more interesting than past years. One of the new terms that I have found interesting is metonymy, which is when a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. A very popular example of this comes from Shakespeare’s “Julies Caesar”. In the play, Mark Anthony says “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” What he means is that he wants those people to listen to him, not literally give him their ears. A reason I find this term so interesting is because we often don’t notice it while reading literature. We so often use this in our day to day lives that we are used to hearing such odd sayings. If you really think about what you are saying, it is funny in a way! We often refer to employs of a certain as just the name of the restaurant, or the White House as the entire government. Metonymy is often used to simplify something large into something smaller and easier to refer to. Because of this, I have been more aware of what I am saying and have realized how often I use metonymys, even though I only became aware of what they are this year.