Figurative • A figure or trope is a word or phrase

Language used in a way that significantly

changes its standard or literal
meaning to add special effect;
• Figurative language is the term used
to describe all nonliteral uses of
language (Schwiebert).

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 • Simile • Hyperbole
• Metaphor • Irony
• Personification • Antithesis
• Apostrophe • Oxymoron
• Metonymy • Paradox
• Synecdoche • Allusion
• Litotes
Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
 Simile • A trope in which one kind of
thing is compared to markedly
different object, concept, or
experience. The comparison is
made explicit by the word
“like” or “as”.
Example
Books and movies are like apples and oranges.
They both are fruit, but taste completely different.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 To the Man I Married Is it the Kingfisher?
by Angela Manalang-Gloria by Marjorie Evasco

But I can love you with love Eyelashes turned blue as the kingfisher’s wings.

As finite as the wave that dies Is the transient in the air, my skin and yours
Transparent as the sea, permeable to the blue.
And dying holds from crest to crest
The blue of everlasting skies.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 First a Poem Must be Magical
by Jose Garcia Villa

First, a poem must be magical,

Then musical as a seagull.

It must be slender as a bell.

It must kneel like a rose.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
 Metaphor • An implicit comparison
between dissimilar items,
concepts, or experiences
without the use of “like” or
“as”
Examples
• Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already
have inside you. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
• Architecture is frozen music. (Madame de Stael)

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Pre-text
Two Volume Novel
Our love is a dead star
by Alfredo E. Litiatco
To the world it burns brightly---
But it died long ago.
The world’s askew, and
Life is a rack; My Air Castle

For I loved two, and Juan F. Salazar

Both loved me back.

My life’s tomorrow beckons me
From distant mountains, high and low;
My future seems a boundless sea,
Where moving passions come and go.
Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
 Personification • An abstract concept, animal,
or inanimate object is treated
as though it were alive or had
human attributes.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 The Fence
by Maximo Ramos

But when I saw the fence, its hair, its dress

So jewelled with the nestling warbler had for me
Such eloquence I turned away near tears
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray
Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
 But the Western Stars
by Angela Manalang Gloria

But the western lagoons and the lonely stars,

They whisper across the sea.

Manta, aanhon ko man an libsog nga atay

hilaba nga kinabuhi ug an kawaray utang,
kun kanunay gin-uuhaw an dughan. (Firie Jill T. Ramos)

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Apostrophe • An address to an absent person, a
personified inanimate being, or an
abstract as though present;
• The dead are addressed as if they were
living, the absent as if they were
present.
Examples
• O grim-looked night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when day is not.
• Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk to you again.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Like the Molave
by Rafael Z. da Costa
Not yet, Rizal. Sleep not in peace.
Not yet Rizal, not yet, the land has need
Of young blood and, what younger than
your own.
Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
Apostrophe
Michael Flores Caasi
O darkness, dear darkness,
Show my soul with dark lights
Soaring, filling my emptiness
In this quiet sleepless fights
Come today my friendly silence
In this crowded noisy calm place.
Whisper your stillness in my ears.
Hypnotize me and wipe my tears.
 Metonymy • The literal term for one thing
which is used to stand for
another with which it is closely
associated.
Examples
• The pen is mightier than the sword. (Edward Bulwer Lyton)
• Lend me your ears! (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
• The throne will not approve of you. (Throne- King)

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 But the Western Stars
by Angela Manalang Gloria

But the western lagoons and the lonely stars

They whisper across the sea,
And I must away to a misty shore
That call the dark to me.
My banca and I must go.
Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
My Air Castle
Juan F. Salazar
I cannot write with Shakespeare’s pen,
But I cannot love with Shakespeare’s heart;
I love his skill his craft of men,
His mastery of poet’s art.
 Synecdoche • A part of something signifies
the whole, or a whole to
represent the part.

Examples
• All hands on deck.
• He has six mouths to feed.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Respect is due for snowy hair
Life they lived is beyond compare
- Anonymous
Bonsai
Edith L. Tiempo
Till seashells are broken pieces
From God’s own bright teeth
And life and love are real
Things you can run and
Breathless hand over
To the merest child.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Remember • A synecdoche uses part for the
whole or the whole for a part.
• A metonymy is a substitution
where a word or phrase is used
in place of another word or
phrase.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Hyperbole • A great exaggeration is used for
effect. The effect of hyperbole is
often to imply the intensity of a
speaker’s feeling by putting them
in uncompromising or absolute
terms.
Examples
• It took you forever!
• My love is bigger than the universe expanded.
• I love you to the moon and back.
• I’ll die if I don’t pass this course.
Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018
 Appetite
Arjun Naganathan When you rehearse your list of loves to me,
Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous-eyed.
In a house the size of a postage stamp
And you laugh back, nor can your ever see
Lived a man as big as a barge
The thousand little deaths my heart has died.
His mouth could drink the entire river
(Dorothy Parker)
You could say it was rather large
For dinner he would eat a trillion beans
And a silo full of grain,
Washed it down with a tanker of milk
As if he were drained.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Irony • Inconsistency in the
statement; the opposite of
its actual meaning.

Examples
• A liar gives a public lecture on honesty.
• The “Titanic” was dubbed as the unsinkable ship. It sank.
• Here’s some bad news for you: you all got a perfect score.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Ironic Irony
Alyssa Sunico

What’s in a word
That says far too long
Of the feelings
All a miss.

Tells how the sun shines

On a day gloom
Or how loss resonates
The rays of a rainbow.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Antithesis • Words or phrases that are parallel
in order and syntax express
opposite or contrasting meanings

Examples
• “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (Neil Armstrong)
• To err is human; to forgive divine. (An Essay on Criticism, Alexander Pope)
• There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.
(Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn)

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Love
John Paul Ang

II
I used to love you perfectly so much
But it ended tragically as such.
When love was murdered, hate was born.
I now removed the mask I placidly worn

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Oxymoron • It is a compressed paradox that
closely links two seemingly
contrary elements. Its aim is to
suggest a subtle truth.

Examples
• A liar gives a public lecture on honesty.
• The “Titanic” was dubbed as the unsinkable ship. It sank.
• Here’s some bad news for you: you all got a perfect score.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Apostrophe
Michael Flores Caasi

O darkness, dear darkness,

Show my soul with dark lights
Soaring, filling my emptiness
In this quiet sleepless fights

Come today my friendly silence

In this crowded noisy calm place.
Whisper your stillness in my ears.
Hypnotize me and wipe my tears.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Paradox • A statement that appears to
be contradictory, but proves,
on further consideration, to
make sense
Examples
• To lead the people, walk behind them. (Lao Tzu)
• If the fool would persist on his folly he would become wise.
• The beginning of wisdom, as the wise man said,
is to know that you do not know.
• Less is more.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018

 Allusion • A reference to some familiar facts,
people, or events in history and
literature to describe briefly an
idea
Examples
• The way she looked was like a young Imelda.
• She fell for him knowing that he is nothing less than a Casanova
• Sally had a smile like Mona Lisa.
• Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.
• I am no Juliet for you.

Piañar | Philippine Literature | 2017-2018