Figurative Language is the language of poetry, which says one thing in terms of something else. Figurative language depends on various figurative devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, hyperbole
- Simile: A simile is an explicit comparison between essentially unlike things, linked by a connecting word such as “like,” “as,” “than,” or “seems.”
One by one, like leaves from a tree
All my faiths have forsaken me.
--Sara Teasdale, “Leaves”
- Metaphor: A metaphor is an assumed or implied comparison between two unlike things. An object is given the name of that with which it is compared. Unlike the simile there is no connecting word joining the two objects.
My life is a new-minted penny
Which is cast at your feet.
--Amy Lowell, “A Lady”
- Apostrophe: A direct address to an object or idea as if it were a person.
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll.
--Lord Byron, “Apostrophe to the Ocean”
- Personification: The comparison of an object, animal or idea to a human being by giving it human qualities.
When duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can.
--Emerson, “Voluntaries”
- Hyperbole: An obvious exaggeration to produce some definite effect such as impressiveness, terror, or humor.
- Here once the embattled farmers stood
- And fired the shot around the world.
- --Emerson, “The Concord Hymn”
- Irony: the discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, what is said and what is done, what is expected or intended and what happens, what is meant or said and what others understand.
Sometimes irony is classified into types: in situational irony, expectations aroused by a situation are reversed; in dramatic irony, the audience knows more than the characters in the text, so that words and action have additional meaning for the audience.
Sound Devices
- Alliteration: Beginning syllables in close succession with the same consonant sound.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew
The furrow followed free.
--Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
- Onomatopoeia: Occurs when the sound of a word echoes or suggests the meaning of the word. Words like “hiss” and “buzz” are examples of this sound device.
- Assonance: The repetition of a vowel or diphthong sound in two or three words in a line of verse. The vowel or syllable is usually stressed.
The moon’s blue glow filled the room.
- Consonance: Identical consonant sounds, in words in proximity. (dull and pull, patter and flutter)
- Internal rhyme: Occurs when a word at the end of a line rhymes with a word in the interior of the line
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary . . .
--Poe, “The Raven”
Types of Verse
Rhymed Verse: lines with end rhyme and regular meter
Blank Verse: lines of iambic pentameter without end rhyme
Free Verse: lines with no rhyme or regular meter