➢ Simile
Simile is a figure in which a comparison is made between two objects of different kinds, which are alike at least in one point.
e.g. (1) He is as strong as a lion.
(2) Helen like was a lovely rose.
➢ Metaphor
Metaphor is a figure in which there is a comparison of one thing with another without the words like or as.
e.g. (1) Ministers are the pillars of the state.
(2) The fairest rose in all Greece was Helen of Troy.
➢ Personification
Personification is a figure in which objects without life are spoken of as having the qualities of a human being.
e.g. The earth thirsts for rain; when it rains, she smiles with plenty.
➢ Apostrophe
Apostrophe is a figure by which the speaker addresses the same inanimate things or some abstract idea as if it were a living person, or some absent person as if he were present.
e.g. (1) luxury! thou curst by Heaven’s decree, How ill exchanged are joys like these to thee!
(2) Come back to me, 0 Helen, in the pride of the beauty.
➢ Antithesis
In antithesis, a striking opposition of the contrast of words or feelings is made in the same sentence. It is employed to secure emphasis.
e.g. (1) Man proposes, God disposes.
(2) As is the sunset to an evening sky, so was Helen’s beauty to Troy before its downfall.
➢ Paradox Paradox is a figure of speech in which a truth is conveyed under the form of an apparent absurdity of contradiction.
e.g. The child is father of the man.
➢ Epigram
An epigram is a brief pointed saying often in poetical form, frequently introducing antithetical ideas which excite surprise and arrest attention; it closely resembles a proverb.
e.g. A favourite has no friend.
➢ Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a figure by which two contradictory qualities are predicted at once of the same thing. An adjective is added to a word of quite a contrary meaning.
e.g. She accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeon’s knife.
➢ Irony
Irony is the use of words, the natural meaning of which is just the opposite of what is intended to be expressed. By this figure, therefore, we say one thing, but mean just the opposite.
e.g. For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men.
➢ Euphemism
Euphemism is a figure by means of which we speak in pleasing or favourable terms of an unpleasant or bad thing.
e.g. He has gone the way of all.
➢ Litotes
Litotes is the use of a negative to express a strong affirmative of the opposite kind. e.g. I am a citizen of no mean city.
➢ Metonymy
Metonymy means “a change of name,” and is so called because in this figure, a thing is spoken of not by its own name, but by the name of some conspicuous accompaniment.
e.g. You must address the chair.
➢ Synecdoche
Synecdoche is the understanding of one thing by means of another. By this figure one noun is changed for another of a similar meaning.
e.g. (1) All hands to the pumps.
(2) Give us this day our daily bread.
➢ Interrogation
Interrogation is a statement thrown into the form of a question for rhetorical effect. No answer is expected to such a question.
e.g. Can flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
➢ Exclamation
Exclamation is a figure in which the exclamatory form is used to draw greater attention to a point than a mere bald statement of it could do.
e.g. What a piece of work man is!
➢ Climax
Climax is a figure in which the sense rises by successive steps to what is more and more important and impressive.
e.g. I came, I saw, I conquered.
➢ Anti-Climax or Bathos This is the opposite to climax, and signifies a ludicrous descent from the higher to the lower.
e.g. The soldier fights for glory and a shilling a day.
➢ Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a greatly exaggerated statement, used mainly for effect, but not intended to be taken literally.
e.g. He would drown the stage with tears.
➢ Anti-Climax or Bathos This is the opposite to climax, and signifies a ludicrous descent from the higher to the lower.
e.g. The soldier fights for glory and a shilling a day.
➢ Transferred Epithet In this figure, an epithet is transferred from a word to which it properly belongs to some other word closely connected with it.
e.g. He parred a sleepless might.
➢ Pun
A pun is a play upon words.
e.g. He presented me with a matchless box.
➢ Alliteration This consists in the refetition of the same letter of syllable at the beginning of two or more words.
e.g. Money makes the mare move.
