what is Figure of Speech

“Figures of Speech” is a rhetorical device or stylistic device that is used to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling. It is a device that achieves a special effect by using words in distinctive ways.
-Most of the times, a word diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase has a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it.
-Figures of Speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity.

We can classify the figures of speech under:
1. Based on Resemblance such as Allegory, Apostrophe, Euphemism, Imagery, Metaphor, Pathetic Fallacy, Personification and Simile
2. Based on contrast such as Antithesis, Epigram, Oxymoron, Paradox and Pun
3. Based on association such as Metonymy, Symbol and Synecdoche
4. Based on construction such as Anticlimax, Climax, Colloquialism, Exclamation, Interrogation, Pathos, Rhetorical Question and Transferred Epithet
5. Based on repetition such as Alliteration, Anaphora, Assonance, Refrain and, Repetition
6. Based on overstatement or vice versa such as Hyperbole and Litotes
7. Based on moral and criticism such as Fable, Parable and Irony

-Now look at the meaning of some figures of speech with examples:
1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Anaphora
4. Alliteration
5. Consonance
6. Assonance
7. Apostrophe
8. Personification
9. Onomatopoeia
10. Pun
11. Metonym
12. Synecdoche
13. Euphemism
14. Hyperbole
15. Epigram 16. Climax
17. Anticlimax 18. Irony
19. Paradox 20. Oxymoron

1. Simile:
-A Simile is a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two essentially unlike things.
-Two dissimilar objects are compared and the comparison is made clear by the use of terms like “like” or “as”.
For example
-“Frail as a dragon-fly’s wing.” (This is an example for Simile from the poem “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad.” The bells made for the feet of the pigeons are compared with the delicate wings of a dragon-fly)
-She skims liked a bird.
-Her face shines as the moon in the sky.
-“My heart is like an apple tree whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit.” (Christina Rossetti)The following lines from the poem “The River”
-Like a child at play.
-Like impetuous youth.
-Just like mortal prime.
-Like eternity. (the different stages of river are compared to those of a human being.)

2. Metaphor:
-A Metaphor is an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. ( the words “like” or “as” are not used.)
-It is an implied simile and a comparison between two dissimilar things or persons on all points.
For example
-All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. (spoken by Jacques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It)
-The camel is the ship of desert.
-Life is a dream.
-“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!” ( by P.B. Shelley in the poem “Ode to the West Wind” )
-He was a lion in the war.

3. Anaphora:
-It is a deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs;
-We can see repetition in the following examples:
-Sarojini Naidu has repeatedly asked questions in every stanza about the different kinds of goods sold in the bazaar in “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad.”
What do you sell, o ye merchants?
What do you weigh, o ye vendors?
(All the stanzas of this poem begin with the same phrase “What do you…)
-“The ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around” ( in the poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge.)
-Tagore’s repetition of the word “Freedom” at the beginning for many times in his poem “Freedom” and also the word “where” in his poem “Where is the mind is without fear” is also an example for Anaphora.

4. Alliteration:
-The use of words beginning with the same letter or sound is called Alliteration i.e. repetition of sound.
-The effect of alliteration can be almost poetic, making it pleasant and comfortable on the ears.
-For example,
-Faithful Friends From Flattering Foe”
-Run and recover the real one!
-The clever cat climbed the kitchen wall carefully.
-I bear light shade for the leaves when laid Sidelight (the line from Shelley’s The Cloud)

5. Consonance:
-Consonance is the repetition of a consonant across words, particularly at the word ending.
-The effect can be both poetic and also hypnotic, relaxing others and perhaps drawing attention away from persuasive content.
For example
-Wristlets and anklets and ring,
-Take the book back.
-Run for fun and everyone.
-Seven virgins have moved there

6. Assonance:
-In assonance, we repeat a vowel sound often in the middle of words, in poetry, when two syllables in words are close together.
-It is an another repetition device used chiefly in a decorative or supplemental function rather than in a structural one is assonance,
-It is the use of similar vowel sounds with identical consonant clusters.
-My boy was by my side.
-The bride is shining bright in the new attire.

7. Apostrophe:
-Apostrophe as a literary term is a direct address to the dead, absent or a personified object or idea.
-It denotes a figure of speech in which someone absent, inanimate or dead is addressed as if were alive and present and able to reply.
-It enables the speaker to develop ideas that might arise naturally and to create a vivid image expressing intense emotion.

8. Personification:
-It is used in speech and writing for giving inanimate objects, abstract concepts or actions, human or near human characteristics,
-In the poem “River” by CA Bowels “the river” is personified as a human being.
Other examples are:
-“My car was happy to be washed”
-‘Fate frowned on his endeavors.”
-Death lays his icy hand on kings.
-The leaves danced to the sound of the music.