Figures of SpeechEnglish 11: Periods 4,5,7,9

Figure of Speech

An expressive use of language in which words are used in other than their literal sense for special effect or emphasis

Simile

Her eyes twinkled like stars.He was as tough as a bull.

Metaphor

The road was a ribbon of moonlight.

We would have had more pizza to eat if Tammy hadn’t been such a hog.

Irony

Verbal, situational, and dramatic irony

Saying “I’m NOT upset!” while clearly being upset

Smokers in front of a “No Smoking” sign

Making fun of someone for stepping in a puddle and then stepping in one yourself

Paradox

Julius Caesar: Cowards die many times before their deaths. (Act II, scene ii : line 32)

Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Hyperbole

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

James Ramsey Ullman’s “A Boy and a Man”: “It was not a mere man he was holding, but a giant; or a block of granite.”

Onomatopoeia

Robert Browning’s “Meeting at Night”:

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch

And blue spurt of a lighted match.

Alliteration

Robert Frost’s “Acquainted With the Night”:I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet…

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”:Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before

Assonance

Free and easyMake the grade

Consonance

I dropped the locket in the thick mud.

Gerard Manly Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur”: And all is seared with trade; bleared smeared with toil;

Apostrophe

“You stupid chair!” John Donne’s “The Rising Sun”:

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,Why dost thou thus,Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?

Euphemism

Passing away instead of dyingLaid off instead of fired

Oxymoron

Clearly confusedControlled chaosDeliberate mistake“Always be sincere, even when

you don’t mean it.” –Irene Peter

Personification

John Steinbeck’s “Flight”:“A scar of green grass cut across the flat. And behind the flat another mountain rose, desolate with dead rocks and starving little black bushes . . .”

James Stephens’s “The Wind”:“The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers . . . ”

Understatement

Saying “We’ve had a bit of wind today” after a hurricane

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “Tis but a scratch!” when his limbs are cut off

Allegory

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, animals represent Communist Russia

In The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan represents a Christ figure

Rhyme

Coleridge’s “The Ancient Mariner”:“In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud”

Slant Rhyme

Notion/nationBear/boreEar/are

Blank Verse

Shakespeare’s Macbeth:. . . Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Allusion

Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities.

Imagery

William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”:I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretch'd in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

Symbolism

Colors, seasons, nature, weather, animals, clothing, objects, etc.