This document defines and provides examples of various figures of speech. It identifies three general types: figures based on comparison such as simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, and metonymy; figures based on arrangement such as alliteration, climax, and assonance; and figures based on contradiction such as hyperbole, irony, and paradox. Each figure of speech is explained and an example is given to illustrate its use.

2. FIGURES OF SPEECH
FIGURE OF SPEECH – a mode or
expression in which words are used out of
their literal meaning or out of their
ordinary use in order to add beauty or
emotional intensity or to transfer the
poet’s sense.

3. THREE GENERAL TYPES OF
FIGURES OF SPEECH
 1.) Figures based on Comparison – the
common examples of this type are
simile, metaphor, personification,
apostrophe, and metonymy.
a). SIMILE – is an expression of similarity
between two objects which are basically
unlike.

4. The comparison is generally expressed by the
use of “as” and “like.”
Ex. A poem lovely as a tree
 b.) METAPHOR - is a comparison
between two unlike objects without the use
of “as” or “like.”
Ex. “Thy word is a key unto my heart”
 c.) PERSONIFICATION – is an attribution
of human life and characteristics to
inanimate objects.
Ex. singing birds
happy feet

5.  d.) APOSTROPHE – is an address to
an idea, an inanimate object, or an absent
person.
Ex. “I shall return” – Gen. Douglas
Mcarthur
 e.) METONYMY – is to use a sign for
the thing meant or to take the part for the
whole
Ex. He writes a fine hand

6.  2.) Figures based on Arrangement
a.) ALLITERATION – is the repetition of
a letter or sound in a succession of words.
Ex. “Some sat, some stood, some
slowly strayed”
b.) CLIMAX – is the arrangement of
details so that they come in increasingly
important positions.
Ex. “I came, I saw, I conquered”

7.  c.) ASSONANCE - is the repetition of similar
accented vowel sounds.
Ex. “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster child of silence and slow time”
3.) Figures based on Contradiction
a.) HYPERBOLE – is a deliberate exaggeration
made for the purpose of producing a startling
effect.
Ex. “This heat”, I mutter melts the very bones”

8.  b.) IRONY – means the opposite of what
the statement actually says.
Ex. “The fireside must remain safe”
c.) PARADOX – it is a statement that
appears at the first glance to be untrue or
absurd but on second thought become
significant and true.
Ex. “His life was one long struggle with
himself”