Guide to Figurative Language

Allegorya literary device in

which an author uses the form of a person, place, or animal to represent an abstract idea

Apostrophewords that are

spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea

“Tree at my window, window tree,

My sash is lowered when night comes on;

But let there never be curtain drawn

Between you and me.”

“Tree at My Window” by Robert Frost

Hyperbole– a bold, deliberate

overstatement not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement.

Ex: “There did not seem to be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to bait a fishhook with.”

From “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” by Mark Twain

Ironya literary or 

rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or  discord-ance between what a speaker / writer /actor says or does, and what he or she means or what is generally understood.

Ex: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both… And be one a traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth… Then took the other, as just as fair.”

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

Metaphoranother kind of

comparison between unlike things. The comparison instantly reveals some reasonable connection. A metaphor is a more forceful comparison than a simile because no connective word is used.

Ex: “The diabetic grandmother…Stares from the porch…A torch…Or pure refusal.”

From “Grape Sherbet” by Rita Dove

Paradoxa statement that

appears to be absurd, untrue, or contradictory, but may actually be true.

Ex: "One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no

more; death, thou shalt die." 

 John Donne

Personificationwhen we attribute

human qualities to a nonhuman thing or to an abstract idea, we are using personification.

Ex: “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date.” 

William Shakespeare

Similea figure of speech

that uses a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles to compare things that seem to have little or nothing in common.

Ex: “Then he lay down…to sleep like a snow-covered road…Winding through pines older than him,…without any travelers, and lonely for no one..”

“Eating Together” by Li-Young

Symbola thing (object,

person, situation, or action) that stands for something else more abstract.

Ex: TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

“The Tiger” by William Blake, discussing his Muse (and inspiration)

Understatementthe opposite of

hyperbole, understatement (or litotes) refers to a figure of speech that says less than is intended. Understatement usually has an ironic effect, and sometimes may be used for comic purposes

Mark Twain’s statement, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.“