Denotation is the literal meaning,
literal being our now-enfeebled word
for the definition’s respectable intent.
Denotation is the official ordinance,
the definition of decree. But…
like all formal institutions,
nature derides and undermines.

Connotation is the detonation
where the word explodes,
where all the shrapnel is,
where a word’s weedy threads
are embedded with a thousand years.

Connotation is born, literally,
from a familiar misuse,
casual hyperbole, guileless
suggestion. The subtext germinates
underground, a burrowing marmot,
at once cloak-and-dagger
and barefaced-manifest,
impressively charged with shock
and memory, a moving,
inevitable hooligan.

 

From The Writer’s Guide to Common Grammar