Epigram

Use of Epigram by Renowned EPIGRAMMATISTS

1. The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws
2. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Mohandas Gandhi
3. To err is human, but it feels divine. Mae West
4. “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Eleanor Roosevelt.
5. “Little strokes fell great oaks.” Benjamin Franklin
6. “The best thing to hold on to in life is each other.” Audrey Hepburn
7. A Protestant, if he wants aid or advice on any matter, can only go to his solicitor. Disraeli
8. Forty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin and forty years of marriage make her
look like a public building. Oscar Wilde
9. He has occasional flashed of silence that makes his conversation perfectly delightful. Sydney
Smith
10. God made women beautiful so that men would love them, and he made them stupid so that
they could love men. La Belle Otero, the 19th century courtesan.
Practice: Euphemism
PRACTICE
1- What is the device called by which non-human and non-living nature is credited with human
emotion?
A- Pathetic Fallacy B-Objective C-Parody D-Unification of Sensibility

2-‘Authority forgets a dying king’ is an example of

A- Personification B-Apostrophe C-Hyperbole D-Metaphor

3- The term ‘Onomatopoeia ‘ and ‘Oxymoron’ came from

A- Greek B-Latin C-Roman D-French

4- Almost the whole of Modern English Poetry is dominated by

A- Iambic Pentameter B-Iambic Hexameter C-Iambic Heptameter D-Iambic tetrameter
5- ”A lovelier flower on Earth was never sown” has the figure of speech called
A- Hyperbole B-Oxymoron C-Metaphor D-Implied Simile

6- Which of the following is a direct address either to an absent person or to an abstract or inanimate
entity?
A- Apostrophe B-Ode C-Epode D-Hyperbole

7-Pun is a play on words that are similar

A- In sound but diverse in meaning B- In meaning but diverse in sound
C- Both in sound and meaning but with different sound D-None

8- Which of the following words show oxymoron?

A- Sweet Pain B- Chatter Chatter C-Rivers of Blood D-O Death

9- Which figures of speech are employed in this line?

” O Wild west wind, thou breathe of Autumn’s being”
A- Personification B-Oxymoron C-Apostrophe D-Metaphor

10- In the following statement which figures of speech are used

” His honor rooted in dishonor stood. And faithful unfaithful kept him falsely true”
A- Oxymoron B- Personification C-Apostrophe D-Onomatopoeia

11- Which of the following sentences has figures of speech called ‘Apostrophe?
A- O Death! here is thy sting B-The more haste, the less speed C-Death lays his icy
hands on kings

12- The use of the word with humor satirical intention so that the meaning is directly the opposite of
what is said?
A- Irony B-Jonenillia C-Hyperbole D-Personification

13-What is a literary man or a writer of literary works termed as?

A- Literateur B-Lampoon C-Limerick D-Literature

14- ”Life is but a walking shadow” is an example of

A- Metaphor B-Hyperbole C-Apostrophe D-Simile

15- ”The snakes are hissing and the bees are buzzing ” s an example of
A- Onomatopoeia B-Apostrophe C-Personification D-Oxymoron

16- A lie has no legs

A- Personification B-Metaphor C-Apostrophe D-Alliteration
17-Onomatopoeia means
A- Echoing of the sense by the sound, shape, size o movement
B- Echoing the same sound repeatedly
C-Echoing of the same sense or meaning in different words
D-None

18-Socratic irony is retention to

A- Ignorance in place of knowledge
B-Admiration in place of contempt
C- Affection in place of disgust
D- Enthusiasm in place of disinterestedness

19-Love is blind
A- Personification B-Simile C-Metaphor D-Alliteration

20- How happy is he here!

A- Alliteration B-Personification C- Simile D-Antithesis

21- The wish is father to the thought.

A- Personification B-Alliteration C-Metaphor D-Simile

22- ”Break, Break, Break on thy cold grey stones, O sea!

A- Apostrophe B-Oxymoron C-Personification D-Metaphor

23-I loved Ophelia, forty thousand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love make up the sum.
A- Hyperbole B-Metaphor C-Alliteration D-Simile

24-What is meant by Synecdoche?

A- A part of something used to signify the whole
B- The hole of something used to signify a part
C- An inanimate object endowed with human feeling
D- The terms with a pronunciation similar to their meaning

25- What is the term used to denote the use of one term to mean another with which it has become
closely associated as ‘the crown stands for the king
A- Metonymy B-Prosopopoeia C-Synecdoche D-Onomatopoeia

26- M cheeks grow cold with the warmth of the air

A- Antithesis B-Simile C-Hyperbole D-None

27- Frailty, thy name is a woman!

A- Apostrophe B-Oxymoron C-Metaphor D-Personification
28- The night is dark as a black stone.
A- Simile B- Metaphor C-Onomatopoeia D-Alliteration

29-Break, break, break big boulder beside the river

A- Alliteration B-Antithesis C-Apostrophe D-Personification

30- The city’s voice itself is soft like solitude’s

A- Simile B-Onomatopoeia C-Personification D-Metaphor

31- In trochaic
A- A stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable
B- An unstressed syllable follows tow stressed syllables
C- Two stressed syllables follow one unstressed syllable
D-None

32- She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream

A- Simile B-Oxymoron C-Personification D-Metaphor

33-Life! I know not what thou art.

A- Apostrophe B-Oxymoron C-Personification D-Simile

34- The naughty boy is cunningly simple.

A- Oxymoron B-Metaphor C-Hyperbole D-Alliteration

35-I hear lake after lapping with low sounds by the shore
A- Onomatopoeia B-Simile C-Oxymoron D-Personification

36-Life is but a walking shadow.

A- Metaphor B-Apostrophe C-Simile D-Hyperbole

37- The feet of two-syllable in which the unstressed syllable precedes the stressed one is called
A- Iambic B-Anapestic C-Trochaic D-Dactylic

38- Bathos means

A- Unintentional, ludicrous descent from the exalted to the commonplace
B- Intentional, ludicrous, descent from the exalted to be commonplace
C- Both
D-None

39- An extended narrative which carries a second meaning along with its surface story would be called
A- Allergy B-Litotes C-Symbol D-Synecdoche
40- A special form of understatement, which assets on affirmative by negating the contrary is
A- litotes B-Meiosis C-Irony D-Variorum

41- Three years she grew in sun and shower

A- Antithesis B-Alliteration C-Metaphor D-Oxymoron

42- As many farewells as there be stars in heaven.

A- Hyperbole B-Onomatopoeia C-Oxymoron D-Metaphor

43- Can you hear the buzzing of bees?

A- Onomatopoeia B- Alliteration C-Personification D-Simile

44- The secretary was conspicuous by his absence.

A- Apostrophe B-Personification C-Metaphor D-Simil

45- O Earth! What changes have thou seen?

A- Apostrophe B-Personification C-Simile D-Metaphor

46- Which of the following figures of speech is the opposite of hyperbole

A- Litotes B-Antithesis C-Climax D-Epigram

47- When the post says that A is B he employs

A- Simile B-Metonymy C-Irony D-Metaphor

48-Necessity is the mother of invention

A- Personification B-Litotes C-Oxymoron D-Paradox

49-The poor people of Ireland should rid themselves of poverty by selling their children to the rich to
eat.
A-Irony B-Logorrhea C-Paradox D-Oxymoron

50- How many times have I told you to clean your room?
A- Rhetorical Questions B-Hyperbole C-Oxymoron D-Eponymy
EXERCISE 1
Name the figures of speech in the following sentences:
1. To gossip is fault, to libel is a crime, to slander is a sin.
2. O mischief, thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.
3. They speak like saints and act like devils.
4. How could he be a king, a soldier and a peon?
5. How high, his highness holds his haughty head.
6. What avail me, all my Kingdoms?
7. Hasten slowly.
8. Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
9. Life is a dream.
10. The old, sick dog was put to sleep.
11. She was as proud as a peacock.
12. It crackled and growled and roared and howled.
13. He was conspicuous by his absence.
14. More haste, less speed.
15. The troops were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions.
16. She dropped the pail and turned deathly pale.
17. While her mother did fret and her father did fume,
And her bridegroom stood, dangling his bonnet and plume.

EXERCISE 2
Select the correct alternative

1. When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, it was like snow fallen on Zalmon.
a) Metaphor b) Hyperbole c) Personification d) Simile

2. Her conscious tail her joy declared.

a) Metaphor b) Hyperbole c) Apostrophe d) Personification

3. Speech is silver, silence is golden.

a) Metaphor b) Personification c) Antithesis d) Irony

4. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let
them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth………
a) Metaphor b) Personification c) Apostrophe d) Simile

5. I am so hungry, I could eat a horse.

a) Metaphor b) Irony c) Climax d) Hyperbole

6. The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor.

a) Metaphor b) Personification c) Irony d) Pun

7. Oh judgment! Thou hast fled to brutish hearts. And men have lost their
reason.
a) Metaphor b) Apostrophe c) Hyperbole d) Simile

8. She is won! We are gone! , over bank bush and scar.

a) Apostrophe b) Climax c) Anticlimax d) Pun
Apostrophe

Here are some common examples of apostrophe

1. Why do not you ever work? You stupid computer!

2. Ring o bell!
3. O captain! My captain! Our fearful trip is done.
4. Don’t tell me now, dear eyes.
5. Oh, bed! At last; I can be with you!
Identify Climax and Anti Climax

 "If you think that's bad, it gets worse."

 "To infinity, and beyond!"
 "Out of the frying pan and into the fire!"
 Let a man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country, and his God.
 Since concord was lost, friendship was lost; fidelity was lost; liberty was lost—all was lost.
 "For God, for Country, and for Yale." (A Yale University motto.)
 "He has seen the ravages of war, he has known natural catastrophes, he has been to singles bars." (Woody
Allen)
 "He lost his family, his job, and his house plants."
 "'Oh, poor Mr. Jones,' mourned Mrs. Smith, 'Did you hear what happened to him? He tripped at the top of
the stairs, fell down the whole flight, banged his head, and died'. 'Died?' said Mrs. Robinson, shocked.
'Died!' repeated Mrs. Smith with emphasis. 'Broke his glasses, too.'" (Isaac Asimov)
 “Among the great achievements of Benito Mussolini's regime were the revival of a strong national
consciousness, the expansion of the Italian Empire, and the running of the trains on time."
 A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
 When it's not always raining there'll be days like this
When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this
When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch
Well mama told me there'll be days like this.