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conceit
from Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
Baldick, Chris
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. x, 361 p.
Copyright ㄏ Chris Baldick 2001, 2004, 2008. Extracted from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, originally published in 2008 as a book by Oxford University Press.
Conceit
An unusually far-fetched or elaborate metaphor or simile presenting a surprisingly apt parallel between two apparently dissimilar things or feelings: 'Griefe is a puddle, and reflects not cleare / Your beauties rayes' (T. Carew). Under Petrarchan influence, European poetry of the Renaissance cultivated fanciful comparisons and conceits to a high degree of ingenuity, either as the basis for whole poems (notably Donne's 'The Flea') or as an incidental decorative device. Poetic conceits are prominent in Elizabethan love sonnets, in metaphysical poetry, in the French dramatic verse of Corneille and Racine, and in the Italian and Spanish styles known respectively as concettismo and conceptismo. Conceits often employ the devices of hyperbole, paradox, and oxymoron.
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