FIGURES OF SPEECH

• Authors often use figures of speech in both literature and poetry to enhance their writing.

• Figures of speech present ordinary things in new or unusual ways.

• They communicate ideas that go beyond the words' usual, literal meanings.

They run like the wind.

The snow is as thick as a blanket.

1. Simile• compares two unlike objects

through the use of as or like

Other examples:a. His temper was as

explosive as a volcano.b. You are acting like a baby.

He is as light as a feather.

His skin is like a rose.

Life is a roller coaster.

2. Metaphor

•compares two unlike objects without the use of like or as

Her lovely voice was music to his ears.

Other examples:

a. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John. 14:16)

b. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2)

c. I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. (John 6:35)

________ is a race car.

My pulse is a race car.

_____ were fireflies.

Her eyes were fireflies.

The stars in the clear night sky winked at me.

3. Personification

• gives human traits or characteristics to inanimate objects

This city never sleeps.

Other examples:

a. The bees played hide and seek with the flowers as they buzzed from one to another.

b. The fire swallowed the entire forest.

The tulips nodded their heads in the breeze.

The flower is begging for water.

I'd move mountain for her.

His smile was a smile wide.

4. Hyperbole• is a deliberate exaggeration

Examples:a. I ate so much last night, I

must weigh more than a whale.

b. Your backpack weighs a ton!

Suddenly the room filled with a deafening silence.

5. Oxymoron

•composed of a pair of contradictory words

Examples:

a.My trip to Bali was very much a working holiday.

b.We laughed and cried through the tragic comedy.

c. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

d. He has become an extremely unpopular celebrity.

Other examples:

bitter sweetsilent screamsame differencegenuine immitation

In every cry of every man,In every infant's cry of fear,In every voice, in every ban,The mind-forged manacles I hear:

— William Blake, London

6. Anaphora

- consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis

Examples:

a. Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better and better.

b. “My life is my purpose. My life is my goal. My life is my inspiration.

O Wind, if Winter comes,

Can Spring be far behind?

7. Apostrophe

- some absent or nonexistent person or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding

Examples:

a. Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art

(John Keats, "Bright Star")

b. Then come, sweet death, and rid me of this grief.

[(Queen Isabel in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe)]