LITERARY DEVICES: FIGURE OF SPEECH
DEFINITION
Literary devices are said to be the techniques used to help the authors and poets to
achieve his or her purpose. It is also called figurative language. A figure of speech is a
departure from the ordinary form of expression to produce a better effect. Literary
devices highlight important concepts in any poem or text, strengthen the narrative, and
help readers to connect to the themes. Literary devices are truly artistic, informative
and persuasive.
Main figures of speech are given below:
Alliteration
Alliteration describes a series of words in quick succession that all start with the same
letter or sound. Alliteration draws attention to the phrase and is often used for
emphasis. In short, we can say ‘the repetition of an initial consonant sound’.
For Example
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells,
I’m sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-
shore.
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore
shells.
SIMILE
It is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word ‘like’
or ‘as’. It is an indirect comparison made between two different entities showing some
common aspect or relation.
For Example
Life is just like an ice-cream, enjoy it before
it melts.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on
high
O’er vales and hills”
SIMILE POEM
Iam mad as a storm, Iam silly as a monkey,
I am dumb as a donkey, Iam tall as a tree,
Iam hungry as lion, Iam nice as a horse,
Iam loud as a thunderstorm,
Iam thin as a paper, Iam clever as my Mum
by Aurelie Biehler
METAPHOR
It is a figure of speech where we directly compare seemingly unrelated subjects. In other
words, an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something in
common.
For Example:
The Night is a Big Black Cat
The night is a big black cat
The moon is her topaz eye,
The stars are the mice she hunts at night,
In the field of the sultry sky.
by G. Orr Clark
HYPERBOLE
This device is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device.
It may be used to evoke strong feelings, to create humour or any drastic emotional appeal. It
is used to overstate a situation and is not intended to be taken literally.
For Example:
Homework! Oh, Homework!
I hate you! You stink!
I wish I could wash you away in the sink,
If only a bomb would explode you to bits.
Homework! Oh, homework!
You’re giving me fits
PERSONIFICATION
In this figure of speech human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal or
inanimate objects.
For Example: I know that clouds aren’t people,
but they’re looking glum today.
So I say that they are pouting
as I watch the sky turn gray
The sun is not a person,
but its warmth spreads like a grin.
So I say the sun is smiling,
and the sky cheers up again.
OXYMORON
This figure of speech combines incongruous or contradictory terms.
For Example The Oxymoron Zombie
Perfectly Imperfect
A pretty ugly zombie lost her head
Then definitely maybe
Sweet sorrow in the end
The beautiful beastly undead girl
Clearly misunderstood, did contend
That she was an evil genius and terribly good
At being an oxymoron like all nice zombies should
ONOMATOPOEIA
It is a word that actually looks like a sound it makes and we can hear those sounds as we read.
For Example: The Noisy Recess
Aaah! Scream the kids as they play
Stomp! Stomp! Go the feet tumbling down the
path.
Bang! Go the kids hitting the pole.
Kids kicking soccer balls. Kick! Kick! Kick!
Buzz! Go the bees.
Swish! Goes the ball into the hoop.
Tweet! Screeches the whistle.
Time to go inside
ELEGY
An Elegy is a sad and thoughtful poem expressing death of a person. It is a quatrain(four lines).It
contains an ABAB rhyme scheme. Each line is written in iambic pentameter.
For Example: My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage close and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
ODE
An ode is typically a lyrical verse written in praise of or dedicated to someone or something
which captures the poet’s interest or serves as inspiration for the ode.
For Example:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more
REFRAIN
It is a line or a group of lines that regularly repeat in the poem, usually at the end of the stanz or
at the end of the verse in a song.
For Example:
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
SONNET
Sonnet is a little song or small lyric. In poetry, a sonnet has 14 lines and is written in iambic
pentameter. It has a specific rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme in English is usually abab-cdcd-
efef-gg and in Italian sonnet abba- cde-cde.
For Example:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (a)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a)
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: (b)
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c)
And often is hid gold complexion dimm’d; (d)
And every fair from fair sometimes declines, (c)
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d: (d)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade (e)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (f)
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, (e)
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (f)
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g)
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (g)
GHAZALA TANVIR
TGT(ENGLISH)
