Pama, Justine C.

BSED – Biological Sciences IV

World Literature 2 October 26, 2018

Figure of Speech
(Activity 1 – Final)

A figure of speech is a literary device in which language is used in an unusual—or

"figured"—way in order to produce a stylistic effect. It is a phrase or word having different
meanings than its literal meanings. It conveys meaning by identifying or comparing one thing to
another, which has connotation or meaning familiar to the audience. In other words, figure of
speech relies on implied or suggested meaning, rather than a dictionary definition. That is why it
is helpful in creating vivid rhetorical effect.

Two Main Groups of Figure of Speech

I. Tropes are figures of speech that involve a deviation from the expected and literal
meaning of words. A trope uses comparison, association, or wordplay to play with the
literal meaning of words or to layer another meaning on top of a word's literal meaning.
Kinds of Trope

1. Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that uses comparison. In a simile, we use two specific
words “like” and “as” to compare two unlikely things that actually have nothing in common.
This is done to bring out the dramatic nature of the prose and invoke vivid images and
comparisons. It is one of the most common forms of a figure of speech and is used in
everything from day-to-day talk to poems.

Example:
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
My heart is like a rainbow shell…
(“A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti)

Rossetti has used simile thrice in this part of the poem, comparing her heart to a
“singing bird”, “an apple-tree”, and a rainbow shell.” The poet makes comparison of heart
to a happy bird in a nest, an apple tree full with fruits and a beautiful shell in the sea, full
of peace and joy.

2. Metaphor
A metaphor and a simile are quite similar actually. A metaphor also uses compares to
things that are in no way similar. It does so to bring out the symbolism. A metaphor is a word
or phrase used to show its similarity to another thing. It helps to explain an idea, but if you
take a metaphor at its literal meaning it will sound absurd. While a simile and metaphor seem
to be very similar, there is one basic difference between the two. In a simile, the comparison
happens with the help of the words “as” and “like”. A metaphor will not have either of those
two words.
 Example:
Presentiment – is that long shadow – on the lawn –
Indicative that Suns go down –
The notice to the startled Grass
That Darkness – is about to pass –
(“Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn” by Emily Dickinson)

In this example, Dickinson presents presentiment as a shadow. Presentiment

actually means anxiety or foreboding, which she calls a shadow. In fact, she makes
compares it with shadow to provide a better description of anxiety that could creep up in a
person’s life and cause fear.

3. Personification
Another very interesting figure of speech is personification. In this, we personify or
represent a non-human entity as human. We give an inanimate object or an intangible idea of
some human qualities such as emotions, or gestures or even speech. This is done to portray
the object as alive and help the listener or reader paint a vivid picture.

Example:
“Hadn’t she felt it in every touch of the sunshine, as its golden finger-tips pressed
her lids open and wound their way through her hair?”
(“The Mother’s Recompense” by Edith Wharton)

In the above lines, the speaker is personifying sunshine as it has finger tips that
wound their way into her hair. This is trait of using finger-tips in hair is a human one.

4. Hyperbole
Hyperbole in the Greek language translates to ‘excess’. And that is what it does, it
exaggerates. It exaggerates to lay emphasis on a certain quality or feature. It stirs up
emotions among the readers, these emotions could be about happiness, romance,
inspiration, laughter or sadness. We use hyperbole to emphasize the importance or to
overstate something. These exaggerates, claims, and statements are never meant to be taken
at their literal meaning. They are used to create a strong and lasting impression.

Example:
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.”
(“As I Walked Out One Evening” by W.H. Auden)
In this poem, Auden has used hyperbole to stress on how long his love his beloved
would last. Just imagine when China and Africa would meet and can river jump up over
the mountains? How salmon can be intelligent enough so that it could sing and evolve
enough and walk the streets?

5. Onomatopoeia
This is a figure of speech where words or phrases indicate sounds. Often to bring about
more imagery and better describe a setting, authors use words to involve all five of our senses.
Onomatopoeia refers to those words that imitate the sounds of an object or person.

Example:
 Hear the loud alarm bells,
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune…
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows…

(“The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe)

Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem “The Bells” is one of the most onomatopoetic
works of literature in history. The loud alarm bells, as shown in this excerpt, produced such
an effect on Poe that they warranted two stanzas. We see words like “shriek,” “clang,”
“clash,” “roar,” “twanging,” and “clanging,” all words that Poe uses to make the turbulent
and alarming sounds.

6. Irony
The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. Also, a statement
or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the
idea.

Example:
“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
(“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Coleridge)

In the above-stated lines, the ship – blown by the south wind – is stranded in the
uncharted sea. Ironically, there is water everywhere, but they do not have a single drop of
drinkable water.

7. Pun
Pun is the manipulation of words that have more than one meanings. It
brings humor in an expression.

Example:
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;
(“Sonnet 135” by William Shakespeare)

See the use of odd grammar rule, which is the capitalization of word “Will.”
Usually in the middle of a line or sentence, writers capitalize a name. Here it is the first
name of Shakespeare. It means he has created pun of his own name.
 II. Schemes are figures of speech that involve a deviation from the typical mechanics of
a sentence, such as the order, pattern, or arrangement of words. They are mechanical—
they're figures of speech that tinker with words, sounds, and structures (as opposed to
meanings) in order to achieve an effect. Schemes can themselves be broken down in
helpful ways that define the sort of tinkering they employ.

Kinds of Scheme

1. Alliteration
Alliteration is a literary device that repeats a speech sound in a sequence of words that
are close to each other. Alliteration typically uses consonant sounds at the beginning of a word
to give stress to its syllable. This technique plays a crucial role in poetry by lending a strong
rhythm and musical structure to any verse.

Example:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, -
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.
(“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe)

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe uses alliteration in word pairs. In the first three
lines of the poem, there are three examples: weak/weary, quaint/curious, and nodded/nearly
napping.

2. Assonance
Assonance takes place when two or more words, close to one another repeat the same vowel
sound, but start with different consonant sounds.

Example:
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
(“The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe)

3. Anaphora
Anaphora is a rhetorical device used to emphasize a phrase while adding rhythm to
a passage. This technique consists of repeating a specific word or phrase at the beginning
of a line or passage. The repetition of a word can intensify the overall meaning of the piece.
Writers and public speakers use anaphora as a form of persuasion, as a method to
emphasize a specific idea, or as an artistic element.

Example:
“Five years have passed;
Five summers, with the length of
Five long winters! and again I hear these waters…”
(“Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth)
 Wordsworth employs the technique of anaphora in this piece. The repetition of the
word “five” at the beginning of each line gives melody to the lines, which matches well
with its nostalgic tone.

4. Consonance
Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence
or phrase. This repetition often takes place in quick succession, such as in “pitter, patter.”
It is classified as a literary device used in both poetry as well as prose. For instance, the
words chuckle, fickle, and kick are consonant with one another, due to the existence of
common interior consonant sounds (/ck/).

Example:
” ‘T was later when the summer went
Than when the cricket came,
And yet we knew that gentle clock
Meant nought but going home.
‘T was sooner when the cricket went
Than when the winter came,
Yet that pathetic pendulum
Keeps esoteric time.”
(“‘T was later when the summer went” by Emily Dickinson)
It can be seen from these lines that Emily Dickinson has made use of the consonant
“m” frequently in the italicized words.

5. Parallelism
The repetition of sentence structure for emphasis and balance. This can occur in a
single sentence, such as "a penny saved is a penny earned," and it can also occur over the
course of a speech, poem, or other text. Parallelism is a scheme because it creates emphasis
through the mechanics of sentence structure, rather than by playing with the actual
meanings of words.

Example:
“Good we must love, and must hate ill,
For ill is ill, and good good still;
But there are things indifferent,
Which we may neither hate, nor love,
But one, and then another prove,
As we shall find our fancy bent.”
(“Community” by John Donne)
Contrasting ideas of “good” and “ill,” “love” and “hate,” are placed together in
parallel structures to emphasize the fact that we love good because it is always good, and
we hate bad because it is always bad.