Poetry Boot Camp Terms Figurative Language

Simile A comparison of two unlike things through the use of like or as.

As hot as the sun

Metaphor The comparison of unlike things without the use of like or as

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” --Shakespeare, Macbeth

Personification The use of human characteristics to describe animals, objects, or ideas.

The moon smiled down at us as we sat by the river. (This quotation also exemplifies pathetic fallacy)

Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole or when a genus is referred to by a species.

I want to take a ride in your new wheels! That word occurs only three times in all of Shakespeare.

Metonymy A figure of speech in which something is referred to by one of its attributes

Referring to businesspeople as “suits.” Pen is mightier than sword. (Pen refers to written words and sword to military force.) Let me give you a hand. (Hand means help.)

Symbol A concrete object that is made to represent something abstract.

The fish in The Old Man and the Sea represents youth.

Allusion Reference to a well-known work of literature, art, mythology, etc.

She was quite the Mona Lisa, as she was a very mysterious lady.

Hyperbole Excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact

I’ve told you this a million times already!

Litotes Deliberate understatement, in which an idea or opinion is often affirmed by negating its opposite (though this is not the case in the first example)

It’s nothing. I’m just bleeding to death is all. He is not unfriendly. That speech is not inappropriate.

antithesis The contrasting of ideas by the use of parallel structure in phrases or clauses

“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” ---Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. Man proposes, God disposes. Speech is silver, but Silence is Gold.

“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” --Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

apostrophe A direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea

“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness…” --John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

Paradox A statement that seems absurd or even contradictory but that often expresses a deeper truth.

“Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” ---Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Oxymoron The association of two contradictory terms

Same difference Jumbo shrimp Soft rock

Zeugma from Greek “yoking” or “bonding”, is a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun blending together grammatically and logically different ideas.

“And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.” ( the Bible.) “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar) Great Anna! whom three Realms obey, Dost sometimes Counsel take – and sometimes Tea.” (Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto III)

synethesia Technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one senses like hearing, seeing, smell etc. at the same.