Writing About Literature

13. Figures of Speech

Definition

► A figure of speech is the use of words that diverge from their literal meaning ► The figurative meaning may be achieved through special    repetition arrangement or omission of words ► Figures of speech are used by poets to achieve freshness of expression or insight ► They can also introduce a desirable ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. ► The most common figures of speech in poetry are metaphor and simile

Other Figures of Speech:

Metonymy

► A figure of speech in which one thing is referred to by something else which is closely associated with it, like “crown” for a king or “sweat” for hard work or “Hollywood” for the film industry. ► Example: 

Doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat.

from

As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

Other Figures of Speech:

Synecdoche

► A figure of speech in which a part is used to signify the whole, as in “hired hands” for workers or “The Pentagon” for the Department of Defense. ► Example: 

Cars roll past all stuffed with eyes.

from

Soul Kitchen

by Jim Morrison 

I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

from

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

by T. S. Eliot

Other Figures of Speech:

Personification

► ► ► ► Anthropomorphism: Ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god Zoomorphism: Applying animal characteristics to humans or gods Objectification: to refer to a human or other living thing as an object Example: 

all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils;

from

I wandered lonely as a cloud

by William Wordsworth 

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

 from

Ode on a Grecian Urn

by John Keats Anthropomorphic animals can be found in works like

Lord of the Rings

and Orwell’s

Animal Farm

Other Figures of Speech:

Over/understatement

► Meiosis: the use of understatement  The Black Knight scene from

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

("It's just a flesh wound!") ► Litotes: understatement that emphasizes the magnitude of something by denying its opposite 

No, Godzilla is not just another alligator in the sewers!

► Hyperbole: the use of overstatement 

I would / Love you ten years before the Flood; And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews.

from

To His Coy Mistress

by Andrew Marvell ► Adynaton: hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility

Other Figures of Speech:

Sensuality

► Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes ► Examples:     Many machine sounds like “honk” or “beep-beep” for the horn of an automobile.

Comic book sounds like “kersplat,” “bam,” “pow” and “wham.” Word like “snap, crackle, pop.” For animal sounds, words like buzz (bee), quack (duck), bark (dog), roar (lion) and meow (cat) are typically used in English.

► Synesthesia: Description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another 

…sunburnt mirth! / O for a beaker full of the warm South!

from

Ode to a Nightingale

by John Keats

Other Figures of Speech:

Puns

►

A form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words

►

Example:



Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York

from

Richard III

by William Shakespeare

Other Figures of Speech:

Apostrophe

► Addressing a thing, an abstraction or a person not present ► Example: 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so

from

Holy Sonnet X by

John Donne 

Roll on, thou dark and deep blue Ocean – roll!

from

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

by Lord Byron

Other Figures of Speech:

Oxymoron

► Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other ► Example: 

O brawling love, O loving hate, O any thing of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

from

Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare