LESTOJAS, PJ

Figures of Speech
Figures of speech are departures from the direct way of speaking or writing,
intended to explain, emphasize, elucidate or embellish what is being said.
They are chiefly used in poetry for the sake of vividness. They are also used
in prose especially in public speeches to give added effect or beauty to what is
said.
The figures of speech may be divided into five sections:
I. Figures based on Similarity or Likeness. They are:
(1) Simile
(3) Personification

(2) Metaphor
(4) Apostrophe

II. Figures based on Contrast, Difference or Surprise. They are:

(1) Antithesis
(3) Oxymoron
(5) Euphemism

(2) Epigram
(4) Irony
(6) Litotes

III. Figures based on Association or Substitution. They are:

(1) Metonymy

(2) Synecdoche

IV. Figures based on Construction or Arrangement of words. They are:

(1) Interrogation
(3) Climax
(5) Hyperbole
(7) Tautology

(2) Exclamation
(4) Anticlimax
(6) Transferred Epithet

V. Figures based on Sound. They are:

(1) Pun
(3) Onomatopoeia

(2) Alliteration

1. BASED ON SIMILARITIES
(1) Simile. Simile is a figure in which a comparison is made between
objects of different kinds, which are alike at least in one point.
In this figure words like, as or like are always used.
Suresh is as strong as a lion.
Helen was like a lovely rose.

LESTOJAS, PJ
Note: Comparison between two objects of the same kind is not a simile
but a simple comparison.
e.g., Smith is as clever as Henry.
Other Examples:
(i) The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.
(ii) He looks as cheerful as a rose.
(iii) He roared like a lion.
(iv) It stirred the heart as a trumpet.
(v) Curses are like chickens: they come home to roost.
(vi) He walked about as proud as a peacock.
(vii) His eyes were as keen as an eagles.
(viii) Thy smile is as the dawn of vernal day.
(ix) That story is as old as the hills.
(2) Metaphor. Metaphor is a figure of speech in which there is comparison
of one thing with another without the words like or as. The resemblance is
implied.
e.g., (1) Ministers are the pillars of the state.
(2) The fairest rose in all Greece was Helen of Troy.
e.g. She accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeons knife.
Other Examples:
(i )
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

He is always idly busy.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.
As clear and still she stood, moon-like remotely near.
He is an honourable villain.
His honour rooted in dishonour stood. And faith unfaithful kept
him falsely true.
(vi) He is a cheerful pessimist, an unwilling volunteer.
(vii) A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility.
(viii) They were engaged in friendly strife.
(ix) Her mother, too, upon this occasion felt a pleasing distress.
(x) He is all faults, who hath no fault at all.
(3) Personification. In personification inanimate objects and abstract
motions are spoken of as having life and intelligence.
Example:
1. In Saxon strength that Abhey frowned.
2. Laughter holding both her sides.
3. Death lays his icy hand on kings.
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LESTOJAS, PJ
(4.) Apostrophe. An Apostrophe is a direct address to the dead, to the
absent, or to a personified object or idea. This figure is a special form of
personification.
Example:
(a) Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this home.
(b) O Friend! I know not which way I must look for, comfort.
II. Based on Contrast, Difference of Surprise
(1) Antithesis. In Antithesis a striking opposition or contrast of words
or sentiments is made in the same sentence. It is employed to secure emphasis.
Examples:
1. Man propeses, God disposes.
2. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of cathay.
3. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
(2) Epigram. An Epigram is a brief pointed saying frequently
introducing antithetical ideas which excite surprise and arrest
attention.
Examples:
1. The child is father of the man.
2. Fools rush in where angles fear to tread.
3. Art lies in concealing art.
4. He makes no friend, who never made a foe.
(3) Oxymoron. Oxymoron is a special form of antithesis, whereby two
contradictory gralities are predicted at once of the same thing.
Examples:
1. She accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeons knife.
2. So innocent arch, so cunningly simple.
(4) Irony. Irony is the use of words, the natural meaning of which is just
the opposite of what is intended to be expressed. By this figure,
therefore, we say one thing but mean just the opposite.
e.g., For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men.
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LESTOJAS, PJ
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)

A very fine friend you are to forsake me in my trouble.

He left me to the tender mercies of my enemy.
He was the cleverest general that ever lost a battle.
I fear I wrong the honourable men whose daggers have stabbed
Caesar.
(v) I will not call him a villain because it would be unparliamentary to
do so.
(vi) That gracious gift a candid friend.
(vii) He did his friend the greatest possible harm; he spoke in praise of
him.
(viii) An imposition is a pleasant holiday recreation.
(ix) He is merry as a tombstone.
(x) What a fine mess of things you have made!
(5) Euphemism. Euphemism is a figure by means of which we speak in
pleasing or favourable terms of an unpleasant or bad thing.
e.g.,

He has gone the way of all flesh.

Other Examples:
(i) That statement is an invention.
(ii) He is a queer person.
(iii) You are telling me a fairy tale.
(iv) You labour under a mistake.
(v) She has not the best of tempers.
(vi) He does not keep very exact accounts.
(vii) Discord fell upon the music of his soul.
(viii) Those expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read
aloud in the family.
(ix) Yet beneath the hallowed soil, the peasant rests him, from his toil.
(x) The honourable member is indulging in a figment of an excited
brain.
(6) Litotes. Litotes is the use of a negative to express a strong affirmative
of the opposite kind.

e.g.,

(1) I am a citizen of no mean city.

(2) Helen of Troy was not the ugly duckling of her family.

Other Examples:
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LESTOJAS, PJ
(i) He was not a little annoyed at his failure.
(ii) I can assure you he is no fool.
(iii) These pens are not at all bad.
(iv) I am not a little surprised at your conduct.
(v) He is no dullard.
(vi) He does not look too pleased.
(vii) The first flight across the Channel was no small achievement.
(viii) Johnson was not an ordinary combatant.
(ix) He was by no means overjoyed at the news.
(x) We had no small difficulty in finding his house.
III. Based on Association or Substitution
(1) Metonymy. This means a change of name and is so called because
in this figure a thing is spoken of not by its own name, but by the name
of some conspicuous accompaniment.
e.g.,
(1) You must address the chair.
(2) The pen is mightier than the sword.
(3) The conquerors smote the city.
(4) Swiftly flies the feathered death.
(5) We have read Milton.
(6) He is our pride.
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)

The school is coming out.

The kettle boils.
Red-tape often hinders progress.
This is my son, my own Telemachus, to whom I leave the sceptre
and the isle.
(v)
Forthwith he drank the fatal cup.
(vi) Do not run in the sun.
(vii) The House of Commons was in an uproar.
(viii) On American side, platform and pulpit, spouted fire.
(ix) He was playing to the gallery.
(x) He traced his career from the counting-house to the council
chamber.
(xi) The glories of our blood and state are shadows.
(xii) Altar, sword and pen. Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
has forfeited their ancient English dower.

LESTOJAS, PJ
(2) Synecdoche. Synecdoche: or the understanding of one thing by
means of another. By this figure one noun is changed for another of a
similar meaning.
e.g.,
(1) All hands to the pump.
(2) Preach the Gospel to every creature.
(3) A Daniel come to judgement.
(4) There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in the character of a
Frenchman.
(5) All the rank and fashion came out to see the sight.
(6) The marble speaks.
Other Examples:
(i) He lived twenty summers.
(ii) I am out of humanitys reach.
(iii) He was put in irons.
(iv) The mother in her was moved by my appeal.
(v) Many hands made light work.
(vi) My bed is under the stars.
(vii) He has many mouths to feed.
(viii) He plunged the steel into his bosom.
(ix) He is the Caesar of this age.
(x) Happy is the home, where contentment lies in peace.
IV. Based on Construction
(1) Interrogation. Interrogation is a statement thrown into the form of a
question for rhetorical effect. No answer is expected to such a question.
e.g., (1) Can Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
(2) Has not Helen of Troy been a beautiful woman?
Other Examples:
(i) Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour?
(ii) Who is here so vile that will not love his country?
(iii) Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before
kings.
(iv) Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath
said, This is my own my native land?
(v) Who is here so base that would be a bondman?
(vi) Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
(vii) Can two talk together except they be agreed?
(viii) Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting
breath?
(ix) He that formed the eye, shall He not see?
(x) Who would be so wicked as to slay his own father?

LESTOJAS, PJ
(2) Exclamation. Exclamation is a figure in which the exclamatory form
is used to draw greater attention to a point than a mere bold statement of it
could do.
e.g., (1) What a piece of works is man!
(2) How beautiful Helen of Troy was!
Other Examples:
(i) O what a fall is this, my countrymen!
(ii) What a glorious sunset!
(iii) How bravely he met his death!
(iv) Oh that those lips bad language!
(v) How sweet the moonlight sleeps on this bank!
(vi) O that I had wings like a dove:
(vii) How sweet the merry linnets tune, How blithe the blackbirds lav!
(viii) O that the desert were my dwelling place!
(ix) O that I were young again!
(x) O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!
(3) Climax. Climax is a figure in which the sense rises by successive steps
to what is more and more important and impressive.
e.g.,
(1) I came, I saw, I conquered.
(2) Helen was a lovely girl, the fairest maid in Greece, the most beauteous
maiden in the whole world.
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

I smile, I laugh, I roar.

Great, wide, beautiful world.
Robber, murderer, patricide.
The guns again rise to a last fury, to a rage, a lust.
Simple, erect, severe, austere sublime.
There mark what ills the scholars life assail, toil, envy, want, the
patron, and the jail.
He begs, he lies, he steals, he kills for gold.
To gossip is a fault ; to libel, a crime ; to slander a sin.
That consolation, that joy, that triumph was afforded to him.
At first he walked, then he ran, and at last he simply flew.

(4) Anti-Climax or Bathos. This is the opposite to Climax, and signifies

a ludicrous descent from the higher to the lower.
e.g.,

(1) The soldier fights for glory and a shilling a day.

(2) For thy sake, dear Helen, I would do anything but die!

LESTOJAS, PJ
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

A hero perish, or a sparrow fall.

I die, I faint, I fail.
The wisest, Brightest, meanest of mankind.
A man so various, that he seemed to be not one, but all mankinds
epitome: Who in the course of one revolving moon was lawyer,
statesman, fiddler, and buffoon.
He read me a lecture on honesty, gave me his blessing and
overcharged me six pence in the bill.
Here, thou great Anna! Whom three realms obey. Dost sometimes
counsel take and sometimes tea.
On the same day he lost his wife, his dog, and a three 1 penny bit.
He was remarkable for commanding intelligence, perfect virtue,
and above all a snub nose.
He is a great philosopher, an astute demagogue and a buffoon.
And thou, Dalhousie, the great god of war, Lieutenant Colonel to
the Earl of Mar.

(5) Hyperbole. Hyperbole is a greatly exaggerated statement, used

mainly for effect, but not intended to be taken literally.
e.g.,
(1) He would draw the stage with tears.
(2) For one smile from Helen, I would barter ten thousand years of
anguish.
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

It is an age since we met.

Ive had thousands of teeth taken out.
I was bored to death by his ceaseless chatter.
He has tons and tons of money.
All India was shocked at the news.
He is stronger than a lion.
She wept oceans of tears.
The sea rose mountain high.
The sky shrank upward with unusual dread. And trembling Tiber
dived beneath his bed.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.

(6) Transferred Epithet. In this figure, an epithet is transferred from a

word to which it properly belongs to some other word closely
connected with it.
e.g., He passed a sleepless night!

LESTOJAS, PJ
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

He tossed from side to side on his restless pillow.

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.
A lackey presented an obsequious cup of coffee.
He stood upon the dizzy cliff.
Is there no play To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
She would with a greedy ear devour Othellos discourse.
To their untravelled thought, their village was their world.
The prisoner was placed in the condemned cell.
He leaves a weary waste behind.
We had a pleasant time there.

(7) Tautology. Tautology is the use of unnecessary words to express the

same idea.
e.g., The one sole survivor of the wreck was a Norwegian.
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

He dwelt in lonely isolation.

She may again regain her property.
He entered into a joint partnership with Mr. X.
I rejoiced at the happy sight.
Let us join it together.
He continued to remain my friend.
They returned back again to the same city from whence they
came forth.
She sighed a sigh and prayed a prayer.
His voice has a tone of monotony and sameness.
That is quite evident and manifest.

V. Based on sound
(1) A Pun. A Pun is a play upon words.
e.g., (i) Not on thy sole, on thy soul, harsh Jew.
(ii) Nell of Troy was the death Knell of Troy.
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

He is too much of a bear, to bear this calmly.

Is life worth living? That depends upon the liver.
An ambassador is an honest man who lies abroad for the good of
his country.
Well, Mr. Shepherd, where is your flock?
Oh! How that name befits my composition. Old indeed and gaunt
is being old.
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LESTOJAS, PJ
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)

Can a leopard change its spots? Yes, when it goes from one spot
to another.
A boy who eats dates makes good use of his time.
He kept his spirits up by pouring spirits down.
It shall be called Bottoms dream, because it hath no bottom.

(2) Alliteration. This consists in the repetition of the same letter or

syllable at the beginning of two or more words.
e.g., (i) Full fathom five thy father lies.
(ii) The loveliest lady in the llian land (Troy) was Helen.
Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

The snake slept under a spray.

And waves of shadow went over the wheat.
A sweet, sad smile then spread across her face.
And the cowslip and blue-bell are bent by the bee.
Extensive harvests hand the heavy head.
Let lovely lilacs line Lees lonely lane.
Ruin seizes thee, ruthless King!
Fair fowls have feathers fair.
Round and round the rugged rock, the ragged rascals ran.
That dry drudgery at the desks dead wood.

(3) Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is the employment of words that

imitate the sound or echo the sense.
e.g.

The bull bellowed.

Other Examples:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

The thunder roared and the lightning crashed.

He flumped down behind.
The rattle of the hall upon the root awoke me.
By zig-zag paths and juts of pointed rock.
A fleet of planes whirred above our heads.
And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
Dry clashed his harness in the icy caves.
Brushing with hasty steps the dew away.
Now and again came the tong-ting-tong of a sheep-bell.

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