Beyond metonymy, beyond extravagance: Two literary devices in the poetry of Sìleas na Ceapaich

This essay discusses two literary devices of late medieval and early modern Gaelic poetry from the starting point of their presence in the work of Sìleas na Ceapaich. The first part shows that in certain cases what has been seen as a metonymy (or a metaphor) is in fact a metalepsis, a more complex figure of speech. Early modern Western-European rhetoricians were understandably ambivalent, if not wary, in respect of metalepsis. Not so the Gaelic poets, for whom the panegyric code provided a cultural framework around which to build this particular figure of speech with full confidence of its successful delivery. The second part of the paper proposes that the well-known extended-praise section in Alasdair a Gleanna Garadh is a replication of a literary device common in the work of the Classical, school-trained court poets. Both devices discussed, or traces of them, can also be found in vernacular verse.