Figures of speech

A figure of speech expresses an idea, thought or image with words which carry meanings
beyond their literal ones. Figures of speech give extra dimension to language by stimulating the
imagination and evoking visual, sensual imagery. Such language paints a mental picture in words.
Some types of figurative language are the following:

 Simile: a direct comparison of two things, usually employing the words “like” or “as”.
e.g.: “My heart is like an apple tree whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit.” (Christina
Rossetti)
 Metaphor: a comparison that does not use “like” or “as”.
e.g.: “He was eager to help, but his legs were rubber.” (Raymond Chandler)
Some metaphors are indirect: they do not actually name the object being compared. The
reader must understand the comparison from the context.
e.g.: “She was beautiful, but rusted, as if her beauty had been abandoned, exposed to the
elements.” (Marisa Silver)
 Personification: to personify something is to give human characteristics to it.
e.g.: “These are the lips of the lake, on which no beard grows. It licks its chops from time to
time.”
(Henry David Thoreau)
 Apostrophe: Apostrophizing means addressing an object or an idea as if it were a person.
e.g.: “Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art?” (John Keats)

 Hyperbole: the use of exaggeration or overstatement to make a point. It may be used for
emphasis, for humor, or for poetic intensity.
e.g: Why does a boy who's fast as a jet/ Take all day---and sometimes two---/ To get to
school? (John Ciardi)
 Understatement: the opposite of hyperbole. This means using mild, gentle words to describe
something dramatic, violent, or shocking.
e.g.: “I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the
brain.” (J.D. Salinger)
 Allusion: a reference to some historical or literary event or person that has striking
resemblance to the subject under discussion.
e.g.: “He is a Romeo to every girl he meets.”
 Chiasmus: a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases.
e.g.: “Eat to live, not live to eat.” (Socrates)
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” (John
F. Kennedy)
“Truth is beauty, beauty truth.” (John Keats)
 Anaphora: Figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one
sentence, clause, or phrase is/ are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive
sentences, or phrases; repetition of the initial word(s) over successive phrases or clauses.
e.g.: Open the temple gates unto my love,/ Open them wide that she may enter in. (Spenser)
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  Epistrophe: figure of repetition that occurs when the last word or set of words in one
sentence, clause or phrase is repeated one or more times at the end of successive sentences,
clauses or phrases.
e.g.: “ The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms
that divides us has come.” (Nelson Mandela)
 Alliteration: figure of emphasis that occurs through the repetition of initial consonant letters,
or sounds, in two or more different words across successive sentences, clauses, or phrases.
 Oxymoron: It consists of two words which are opposites but which are placed next to each
other.
e.g.: “As t’were with a defeated joy.” (Shakespeare) ; bitter sweet, working vacation, open
secret, act naturally.
 Paradox: It is a statement which seems to contradict itself but which contains a deeper truth.
Paradoxes are similar to oxymorons, but where an oxymoron puts opposite words together, a
paradox puts opposite ideas together.
e.g.: “The child is father of the man.” (William Wordsworth); You always hurt the one you
love.
 Antithesis: the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
e.g.: “ Love is an ideal thing, marriage is a real thing.” (Goethe)
 Pun: a play on words that sound the same but have different meanings.
e.g.: “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall/ Find me a grave man.” (William Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet)
In this quote, Mercutio is saying that he will die tomorrow and he is quite serious about it.
(grave= serious, unfunny & the place where the dead are buried.
 Rhetorical questions: a question not expecting an answer, but done for emphasis or effect.
 Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a
part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made
from it.
e.g.: Robby got wheels this summer. (wheel  car)
The hand that wrote the letter.. (hand -> person)
 Onomatopoeia: the formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the
objects or actions they refer to.
e.g.: ding!, meow
 Ellipsis: the omission of one or more words, which must be supplied by the listener or reader.
e.g.: "Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends." (Virginia Woolf)