Allusion: an implied or indirect reference

 

Allusions can be literary, historical, scientific, etc.

You are responsible for making 9 historical allusions in your creative piece!!!

 

Which word or phrase is an allusion?

 

 

In Millais’s painting, Ophelia dies faceup

 

Millais’s painting is an allusion to a famous painting of Ophelia.

 

Ophelia is an allusion to a character in the play Hamlet.

 

When Bellocq doesn’t like a photograph

he scratches across the plate.

 

The scratching of the photograph is an allusion to the photos taken by Bellocq where women’s faces were mysteriously scratched out.

 

the sanatorium, a sick sister, her body

Invaded by the invisible specter

of our work.

 

This passage is alluding to Bellocq’s photo of a woman visiting her sick friend. The invisible specter an allusion to sexually transmitted infections.

 

 

Poem Titles with Allusions

 

Blue Book – Blue Book is an allusion to the catalog kept in Storyville with details about the prostitutes in the brothels.

 

Letters from StoryvilleStoryville is an allusion to the historical district in New Orleans where prostitution was legalized.