Figures of Speech

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Figures of Speech Figures of speech: Are there literary devices being used that affect how you read the poem? Here are some examples of commonly discussed figures of speech: metaphor: comparison between two unlike things e.g. mindless whispers and secrets simile: comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as" e.g. “Like a small grey coffee pot sits the squirrel.” metonymy: one thing stands for something else that is closely related to it. e.g. using the phrase "the crown" to refer to the king synecdoche: a part stands in for a whole e.g. "all hands on deck," "hands" stands in for the people in the ship's crew. e.g. “pen” to represent writers; “altar” to represent church personification: a non-human thing is endowed with human characteristics e.g. the sun smiled down on us. litotes: a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. e.g. He is no fool.--The Arte of English Poesie, 184 irony: a difference between the surface meaning of the words and the implications that may be drawn from them e.g. He was no notorious malefactor, but he had been twice on the pillory, and once burnt in the hand for trifling oversights.--Direccions for Speech and Style allusion: when you refer to something in an indirect manner. e.g. stalwart, champion alliteration e.g. clutches the cliff, bent and bowed, searing sun onomatopoeia: words which imitate the sounds made. e.g. sigh, the buzz of the bee, the beep of a beeper, the peep of a chicken. hyperbole: greatly exaggerated expression usually to make a point. e.g. His legs bestrid the ocean, his rear'd arm Crested the world, his voice was propertied As all the tuned spheres... --Antony and Cleopatra, 5.2.82 oxymoron: two opposite terms used together. e.g. “The sound of silence” assonance: the same or similar vowel sound repeated in the
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