FIGURES OF SPEECH
Alliteration - The repetition of an initial consonant sound
Peck of pickled peppers
Allusion – A metaphor that makes a direct comparison to historical, cultural, political, or
literary event or character, a myth, or a biblical reference etc.
Memorial Park is like the Garden of Eden.
Anaphora - The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive
clauses
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
— William Blake, “The Tyger”
Antithesis - The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases
"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here."—Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
Apostrophe – Addressing an inanimate object, abstraction, or a person as if it can
respond
“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us? ”—John Donne
Assonance - Similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
“Strips of tinfoil winking like people” – The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath
Chiasmus - A verbal pattern in which the second half of words, sounds, concepts are
repeated in reverse order
“Fair is foul and foul is fair” Macbeth by William Shakespeare
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FIGURES OF SPEECH
Euphemism – Substituting an inoffensive term for one considered offensive
The use of “downsizing” instead of “firing”
Hyperbole - An overstatement using exaggeration to heighten the effect
“He threw the ball so fast it caught the catcher’s mitt on fire.”
Irony – Contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality;
using words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning (can be verbal, situational,
dramatic)
Metaphor – A comparison between two unlike things
“His words were sharp knives.”
Metonymy – To use one word or phrase as a substitute for another with which it's
closely associated
As a soldier, he did not want to deal directly with the brass.
(brass = military officers who wear insignias on their uniforms)
Onomatopoeia - Words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions
they refer to or signify meaning through sound effects
Splash, thud, hiss, sizzle
Oxymoron - A short paradox or phrase in which words with contradictory meanings
appear side by side
“I’ll give you even odds that you don’t make it.”
Paradox - A contradiction or illogical statement
“I’ll never forget old what’s-his-name.”
Personification – To endow an inanimate object with human qualities or abilities
Fear ran rapidly through the crowd.
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FIGURES OF SPEECH
Pun (paronomasia) - A play on words capitalizing on a similarity of spelling and or
pronunciation between words with different meanings
“Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, Rage against the dying of the light.”
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”—Dylan Thomas
Simile - A comparison using "like" or "as" as a connective device
“My love is like a red, red rose.”—Robert Burns
Synecdoche - A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole
“The crowned heads of Europe were in attendance.”
Synesthesia – A conscious mixing of two different types of sensory experience
“A raw, red wind rushed from the north.”
Understatement – A device deliberately used to make a situation seem less important
or serious than it is
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.” (Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz)
**This is not a complete list.
th
Poetry A Pocket Anthology 5 Ed.. R.S. Gwynn
The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms 2
nd
Ed. Ross Murfin, Supryia M. Ray
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