Figures of
Speech
Alankaroti
Yaha Asau Alankaraha.(Sanskrit)
A
figure of Speech adorns the ideas or facts, statements to form a great
impression on the listener or the readers.
In
other words it may be said that Figures of Speech beautify one’s / a / your/
our language.
See
the following examples.
1.
If you don't come to me tomorrow, I will fill this pond with my precious tears.
2.
You play cricket like Tendulkar.
3.
You are Tendulkar of your Cricket Team.
4.
The player is playing in the playground properly.
5.
Danger knows full well that I am more dangerous than danger.
Some
Figures of Speech are as under.
1. Simile,
Simile
is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two objects on a
few similar characteristics.
(i)
You play cricket like Virat Kohli.
(ii)He runs like a horse.
(iii) She sings like Lata Mangeshkar.
A
Simile is normally introduced by "as","like","so"
etc.
(i)
He is as cool as cucumber.
(ii)
They are as bold as brass.
(iii)
She is as clear as crystal.
(iv)
He is as proud as a peacock.
2.
Metaphor,
In
Metaphor the comparison is made between two objects on almost all the
characteristics.
(i)
You are Virat Kohli of your team.
(ii)
He is a horse in the race.
(iii)
She is Lata Mangeshkar of our school.
(iv)
The camel is the ship of the desert.
Here
we find that the comparison is made directly on all the characteristics /
points /qualities found in both "You" and "Virat Kohli". And
the very same cases are found with"He"
and
"horse", "She and "Lata Mangeshkar".
3.
Personification,
In
Personification the inanimate objects or ideas are expressed in a way that it
seems they have life and wisdom.
(i)
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
(ii)
Laughter holding both her sides.
(iii)
I am silver and exact,
(iv)
I have no preconception.
(v)
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just
as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. (Mirror)
Here
mirror is expressed in a way; it seems it has life and wisdom. Hence it is
Personification.
4.
Alliteration,
Alliteration
is a kind of poetic device in which the initial
Consonant
sounds are repeatedly used. In other words it is a repetition of an initial
consonant sound.
The
fair breeze blew
The
white foam flew
The
furrow followed free
We
were the first
That
ever burst
Into
that silent sea. (Ancient Mariner)
5.
Irony,
Irony
is a way of expression made just opposite of what one really means to say. In
Greek comedy the character eiron was a "dissembler". In most of the
use of the term there remains the root sense of dissimulation or a difference
between what is asserted and what is actually the case.(Jacob Abraham)
Verbal
Irony is a statement in which the implicit meaning intended by the speaker
differs from that which is unconsciously asserts. In such works which exhibit
Structural Irony the author instead of using an occasional verbal irony
introduces a structural feature which serves to sustain in duplicity of
meaning. One common device of this sort is the invention of naive hero or a
naive narrator.
Socratic
Irony involves a situation in a play in which the words or acts of a character
carry a meaning unperceived by himself or other characters but understood by
the audience. They expect the opposite of what fate hold in store.
In
Iconic Irony destiny or God or universal process is shown manipulating the life
of the protagonist and enhance total destruction. Such a work is Thomas Hardy's
Tess of d'Urbervilles.
Romantic
Irony occurs when the author builds up artistic illusion only to break it down
by revealing that as artist he is the builder and manipulator of his character
and their actions. Byrons in his poems ‘Don – Juan’ constantly employees this
device.
6.
Hyperbole,
Hyperbole
is a kind of figure of speech in which over statement is made. It is called
exaggeration.
(i)
Thousands of thanks for helping me in this situation.
(ii)
Why, man, if the river is dry, I am able to fill it with tears.
(iii)
Here's the smell of blood still; All the perfume of Arabia will
not
sweeten this little hand.
(iv)
O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
7.
Oxymoron,
In
Oxymoron the statement is made contradictory,
(i)
Abundant poverty is found in this region.
(ii)
He is my friendly contestant.
(iii)
I have got a CD of a new classical music.
(iv)
He accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeon's knife.
8.
Pun,
Pun
expresses different meanings for the same sound or word.
(i)
The panther changes its spots according to the spots.
(ii)
The gardener is fetching water to water the plants.
(iii)
I need a pen to pen a letter.
(iv)
Is life worth living? It depends upon the liver.
9.
Apostrophe,
Apostrophe
is a Figure of Speech in which a person, thing, an abstract idea or imaginary
object is addressed directly. This is a form of Personification
(i)
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish
beasts.
(ii)
O death! Where is thy sting?
(iii)
O grave! Where is thy victory?
(iv)
O liberty! What crime have been committed in thy name?
(v)
O solitude! Where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
10.
Antithesis,
Antithesis
is a Figure of Speech in which
(1) An argument put forward to correct or
change by opposing the first.
(2)
A contrast in which opposing ideas are expressed within a balanced grammatical
structure. (Jacob Abraham)
(i)
Not that I loved Caesar less,
but that I loved Rome more.
(ii) Man proposes, God disposes.
(iii)
To err is human, to forgive divine.
11.
Epigram,
Epigram (Gr)
is any short poem, amorous, elegiac, meditative, complementary anecdotal
or satiric which is polished, condensed and pointed. An Epigram ends with a
surprising or witty turn of thought.(Jacob Abraham)
(i)
Swans sing before they die-"t were no bad thing
Should certain people die
before they sing".
(ii) Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
(iii)
The fool doth thing he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to
be fool.
(iv)
The child is the father of a
man.
12.
Metonymy,
Metonymy
is a Figure of Speech in which one word is used with the intention that it will
suggest another.(Jacob Abraham)
In
Metonymy the object is indicated by naming something accompanying it so that a
concrete adjunct is made to stand for the abstract idea. (L. Brander)
(i)
The Crown, for the king,
(ii)
Neptune, for the sea,
(iii)
Red tape, for the routine of the office,
(iv)
The bench, for the judges.
13.
Transferred Epithet
Transferred
Epithet is a figure of Speech in which an adjective or an adverb is not used
with the word it qualifies, but is associated with the some other words to
which it transfers its meaning. (Jacob Abraham)
(i)
Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground
(ii)
He passed a sleepless night.
(iii)
A lackey presented an obsequious cup of coffee.
(iv)
A ploughman homeward plods his weary way.
14.
Litotes,
Litotes is Greek for "plain" or
"simple". It is an expression in which the fact or idea is accepted
by denying its negation.
(i)
The weather is not bad.
(ii)
"-----and that strife was not inglorious,
though the event was dire.
(iii)
You did not sing a bad song.
(iv)
She is not a little.
15.
Climax,
Climax (Gr Klimax) is a Figure of Speech in
which the series of ideas are arranged in order of increasing importance. In
other words the point in a play or narration at which the Crisis reaches its
peak and resolution follows. (Jacob Abraham)
(i)
He came, saw and conquered.
(ii)
Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime.
(ii)
What a piece of work is man!
How
noble is reason!
How
infinite in faculties!
In
action, how like an angel!
In
apprehension, how like a god! (Wren and Martin)
16.
Anticlimax,
Anticlimax
(Gr-'down- ladder'):-Sinking after deliberate from the sublime to the
ridiculous, in order to achieve a comic or satiric effect.(Jacob Abraham)
Thus
Thomas Gray, in his mock-heroic Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, drowned the
cat when she tried a goldfish. The poet gravely inserted there the observation.
(i)
And thou, Dalhousie, the great god of war,
Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl
of Mar.
(ii)
Here, thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel
take-and sometimes tea.
(iii) The soldiers fight for glory, a
shilling a day.
17.
Onomatopoeia,
Onomatopoeia is a Figure of Speech in which
the sound echoes the sense. (Jacob Abraham) In other words in Onomatopoeia the
speaker imitates the sounds associated with the objects or actions he/she
refers to.
(i)
Hark, hark,
Bow, wow.
The watch dog bark.
(ii)
Canon to right of them,
Canon to left of them,
Canon in front of them,
Volley'd and thunder'd
18.
Refrain,
A
Refrain is a kind of poetic device in which a line is normally
repeated
at the end of every verse.
I
chatter, chatter, as I flow
To
join the brimming river,
For
men may come and men may go,
But
I go on forever.
Till
last the Philip's farm I flow
To
join the brimming river,
For
men may come and men may go
But
I go on forever.
19.
Euphemism,
Euphemism
consists in the description of a disagreeable thing by an agreeable name. (Wren
& Martin)
You
are telling me a fairy tale. (a lie)
20.
Exclamation.
Exclamation
is a figure of speech in which the impression is made by using an exclamatory
form of statement.
See
the following examples:
(i)
'Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!
(ii)
Live, Brutus! Live, live!
(iii)
O piteous Spectacles!
(iv)
O noble Caesar!
(v)
O woeful day!
(vi)
O traitors, villains!
(vii)
O most bloody sight!
(viii)
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
(ix)
Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay!
(x)
Let not a traitor live!
(xi)
Peace, ho! Hear Antony. Most noble Antony!
(xii)
Never, never. Come, away, away!
