❑ Also known as figurative language or symbolic

language
❑ Refers to words, phrases, and expressions that
transcend their literal or ordinary meanings
❑ Relies on connotative rather than denotative
meanings
Objectives
❑ Identify the different types of figures of speech.
❑ Examine examples for each type of figurative
language.
❑ Understand the importance of figures of speech
in creative writing.
❑ Practice how to use a variety of figures of speech.
A stated comparison (usually
formed with "like" or "as")
between two fundamentally
dissimilar things that have
certain qualities in common.
o Tim is as thin as a rake.

o Last night, Dara slept like a

log.
“She dealt with moral problems
as a cleaver deals with meat.”

- James Joyce, The Boarding

House
“He was like a cock who thought
the sun had risen to hear him
crow.”

- George Eliot, Adam Bede

An implied comparison
between two unlike
things that actually
have something
important in common.
o Tim is the apple of his
mother’s eye.

o Dara broke Fred’s heart.

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women
merely players.”

- William Shakespeare,
Jacques in As You Like It
“The streets were a furnace,
the sun an executioner.”

- Cynthia Ozick, “Rosa”

An inanimate object or
abstraction is endowed
with human qualities or
abilities.
o The wildfire is running
through the forest.

Tim…

o Tim heard the pie calling

his name.
“The wind stood up and gave a
shout.
He whistled on his fingers and
Kicked the withered leaves about
And thumped the branches with his
hand
And said he'd kill and kill and kill,
And so he will! And so he will!”

- James Stephens, “The Wind”

A brief and indirect
reference to a person, place,
thing or idea of historical,
cultural, literary or political
significance.
o Literary Allusion
o Mythological Allusion
o Biblical Allusion

o Historical Allusion
o Cultural Allusion
o Tim is as strong as
Hercules.

o Dara took a bite of the

forbidden fruit.
“So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”

- Robert Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”

Breaking off discourse to
address some absent
person or thing, some
abstract quality, an
inanimate object, or a
nonexistent character.
o Bless us O Lord and these
thy gifts…

o “Oh, I miss you…”

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.”

- Jane Taylor, “The Star”

“Then come, sweet death,
and rid me of this grief.”

- Christopher Marlowe, Queen

Isabella in Edward II)
The use of words to convey the
opposite of their literal meaning.
A statement or situation where
the meaning is contradicted by
the appearance or presentation of
the idea.
a. Verbal irony occurs when a
speaker’s intention is the
opposite of what he or she is
saying.
o Verbal irony
b. Situational irony occurs
when the actual result of a
situation is totally different
from what you’d expect the
result to be.
o Situational irony
c. Dramatic irony occurs
when the audience knows
a key piece of information
that a character in a play,
movie or novel does not.
o Dramatic irony
The repetition of a word or
phrase at the beginning of
successive sentences, phrases, or
clauses. Adds rhythm to the text
and allows writers to convey,
emphasize, and reinforce
meaning
o I told Dara not to do it, but
she still did. I told her it
would be a disaster, but
she did not listen.

o You’re damned if you do

and you’re damned if you
don’t.
“I will not eat them in a house,
I will not eat them with a mouse,
I will not eat them in a box
I will not eat them with a fox,
I will not eat them here of there
I will not eat them anywhere,
I do not like green eggs and ham
i do not like them, Sam i am”

- Dr. Suess, Green Eggs and Ham

“Five years have passed;
Five summers, with the length of
Five long winters! and again I hear
these waters…”

- William Wordsworth in “Tintern

Abbey”
An extravagant statement;
the use of exaggerated
terms for the purpose of
emphasis or heightened
effect.
o Dara ate so much that
she weighs more than a
whale.

o If I can’t get a cellphone,

I will die.
“I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to
do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have
hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.”

- Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi

The repetition of the same initial
sound in two or more nearby
words.
“Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers.
“I watched the bare brown back
of the prisoner marching in front
of me.”

- George Orwell, “A Hanging”

A part is used to
represent the whole or
the whole for the part.
o Dara’s got pretty nice
wheels.

o One coke please.

“Land ho! All hands on deck!”

- Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

“Give us each day our daily
bread.”

- Luke 11:3
One object or idea takes the place of
another with which it has a close
association. In fact, the term means
“change of name.”
o Dara’s ride was expensive.

o Tim offered me a cup when

I came for a visit.
“Now I'm in the limelight 'cause I rhyme
tight”

- Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy”

“O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,”

- John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"

The use of words that imitate
the sounds associated with the
objects or actions they refer
to.
o splash, spray, sprinkle, dribble, drip,
drizzle, giggle, growl, mumble,
murmur, chatter, blurt, clatter, jingle,
screech, thud, waft, whizz, whisper,
cuckoo, oink, ribbit
“Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong,
ding-dong. The little train rumbled over the tracks.”

- Arnold Munk, Watty Piper in The Little Engine That

Could
“Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Bow-wow.

- Continued next page…

Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, “cock-a-diddle-dow!”

William Shakespeare, Ariel in The

Tempest
A play on words, sometimes on
different senses of the same
word and sometimes on the
similar sense or sound of
different words.
o I didn’t like my beard at first,
but it grew on me.

o Broken pencils are pointless.

“Not I, believe me. You have
dancing shoes with nimble soles; I
have a soul of lead”

- William Shakespeare, Romeo in

Romeo and Juliet
First Person: “My dog has no nose.”

Second Person: “How does he smell?”

First Person: “Awful!”

- Monty Python in a comedy sketch

Incongruous or contradictory
terms appear side by side.
o act naturally, random order,
original copy, found missing,
alone together, criminal
justice, old news, peace
force
o Dara attended a lecture on
virtual reality.

o Although a big crowd

turned up, Tim did not know
anyone. He was alone in a
crowd.
“With good, and bad, and worse, alike
prolific
Of melancholy merriment, to quote”

- George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don

Juan
“Stop all the clocks, cut off the
telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a
juicy bone,”

- W.H. Auden, Funeral Blues

A statement that appears to
contradict itself.
o This is the beginning of the end.

o Save money by spending it.

- George Orwell, 1984
“I have found the paradox,
that if you love until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt,
only more love.”

- Mother Teresa
References
o Illenberger, A.U., Gotico, S.G., Cagasan, B.G., Cocjin, A.L., Del
Rio, T.D., Jardenil, C.A.D., Madlangbayan, J.C., Parcia, G.B.,
Romarate, E.R.A., Trompeta, L.F.L., Yap-Zerrudo, A.M.A.,
Balofiños, T.T., Camacho, R.B., Javier, M.M.J. (2016). Creative
Writing. Iloilo City: By Authors
o Aguila, A.A., Galán, R.S., Wigley, J.J.G. (2017). Wording the
World: The Art of Creative Writing. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing, Inc.