Sublime

synecdoche

synecdoche

La nave colombiana è rossa di colore e se ne sta lì intatta, attraccata e cigolante, a sorvegliare sorniona l’affanno della vita. E l’affanno della vita non è una frase ad effetto, ma la realtà: poche sagome umane che parlottano, qualcuno che finge di scaricare merci, maneggi che pure in controluce lo capisci.

there are idiosyncratic metaphorical expressions that stand alone and are not used systematically in our language or thought. These are well-known expressions like the foot of the mountain, a head of cabbage, the leg of a table, etc.

The sea was always heaving things up and hurling them back: fishing lines, floats, beer cans, plastic toys, tampons, Nike sneakers. A few years earlier it was severed feet. People were finding them up and down Vancouver Island, washed up on the sand. One had been found on this very beach.

stevedores

This is a case of what we will call metonymy. Here

‘We are all insects,’ he said to Miss Ephreikian. ‘Groping towards something terrible or divine.