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

► 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: Metonymy

► 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: Synecdoche

► 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: Personification

► 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: Over/understatement

► 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: Sensuality

► 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: Puns

► 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: Apostrophe

► 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 Other Figures of Speech: Oxymoron