2. Allegory a literary device in which an author uses the form of a person, place, or animal to represent an abstract idea

3. Apostrophe words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea “Tree at my window, window tree, My sash is lowered when night comes on; But let there never be curtain drawn Between you and me.” “Tree at My Window” by Robert Frost

4. Hyperbole – a bold, deliberate overstatement not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement. Ex: “There did not seem to be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to bait a fishhook with.” From “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” by Mark Twain

5. Irony a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discord- ance between what a speaker / writer /actor says or does, and what he or she means or what is generally understood.literaryrhetorical deviceincongruitydiscord- ance Ex: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both… And be one a traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth… Then took the other, as just as fair.” “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

6. Metaphor another kind of comparison between unlike things. The comparison instantly reveals some reasonable connection. A metaphor is a more forceful comparison than a simile because no connective word is used. Ex: “The diabetic grandmother…Stares from the porch…A torch…Or pure refusal.” From “Grape Sherbet” by Rita Dove

7. Paradox a statement that appears to be absurd, untrue, or contradictory, but may actually be true. Ex: "One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." John Donne

8. Personification when we attribute human qualities to a nonhuman thing or to an abstract idea, we are using personification. Ex: “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date.” William Shakespeare

9. Simile a figure of speech that uses a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles to compare things that seem to have little or nothing in common. Ex: “Then he lay down…to sleep like a snow-covered road…Winding through pines older than him,…without any travelers, and lonely for no one..” “Eating Together” by Li- Young

10. Symbol a thing (object, person, situation, or action) that stands for something else more abstract. Ex: TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? “The Tiger” by William Blake, discussing his Muse (and inspiration)

11. Understatement the opposite of hyperbole, understatement (or litotes) refers to a figure of speech that says less than is intended. Understatement usually has an ironic effect, and sometimes may be used for comic purposes Mark Twain’s statement, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.“