Poetic Devices

FIGURES OF SPEECH

A figure of speech is a literary device which a speaker or writer uses in an expression to give a deeper (connotative) meaning to his words, mark a pattern in the pronunciation or exhibit a pattern in the use (meaning) and arrangement of words. Some common figures are described herein. Note that their definitions will be related to writers, though, they are the same with speakers.

1. Address (Apostrophe): This is a figure of speech whereby a writer calls or speaks to a lifeless or an absent object or person as though the object or person is there and can hear.

2. Alliteration: This is a figure whereby a writer uses a number of words with the same initial consonant sounds together in a statement. At times, it can be used to mean the use of the same sound or letter, at the beginning of consecutive words, which are not necessarily consonants only.

3. Anagram: This is when the letters of a word are jumbled to create another word used in the same sentence.'

4. Analogy: This is a figure with which a writer compares two things of different nature but some similarities in quality in an elaborate manner. It is usually done with the use of "as if", "as though", "as...so". It can be referred to as the general term for comparison such as simile and metaphor.

5. Antanaclasis: It is the play on meanings of a word in a statement. That is, a word is used with different meanings. 

6. Anticlimax (Bathos): This is the arrangement of events or processes from the highest or most serious to the least or most ridiculous.

7. Antithesis: This is a figure whereby a writer makes a contradiction by placing two opposite words or statements beside each other.

8. Antonomasia: This is the use of a title or an epithet to refer to a person instead of the person's actual name/s.

9. Assonance: This is the use of the same vowel sound in several words that follow one another relatively (usually in the same position in the wordsーinitial, middle or end).

10. Climax: This is the arrangement of a sequence in an event or process from the most serious one to the most ludicrous one.

11. Consonance: This is the use of like consonant sound(s) in consecutive words of an expression at the middle or last position in the words.

12. Ellipsis: It is a figure in which the writer exclude one or more words in a statement while its meaning is inferred.

13. Euphemism: A figure it is in which the writer uses decent or ridiculous statements to describe a very ugly and horrible situation or object.

14. Hyperbole: This is an exaggeration of a situation in a statement.

15. Irony: This is the use of a statement which is contradictory to the truth or writer's intention.

16. Litotes (Understatement): This is a figure whereby a situation is presented as though not very important or serious.

17. Metaphor: This is a direct comparison between two different things. It is a compressed form of simile and a very shorten form of analogy. It is "simile" without "like or as".

18. Metonymy: It is a figure in which the writer address something with an object that is very related to it.

19. Onomatopoeia: This is the use of a sound that is related to something to describe that thing.

20. Oxymoron: This is the use of two contradictory words side by side.

21. Paradox: This is the use of two contradictory statements side by side. (Note: paradox has statements while oxymoron has words).

22. Personification: This is a figure in which a non-living thing is attributed the features of living things to or things other than human are given human qualities by a writer.

23. Pun (Paranomasia/Paronomasia): This is a play on the meaning or pronunciation of words.

24. Repetition: This is the act of writing a word or group of words again and again.

25. Rhetoric: This is the act of asking a question which answer is obvious hence not needed to be given.

26. Run-on line (Enjambement): This is a figure whereby the completion of a statement in a line is carried to the subsequent line of poetry.

27. Simile: This is the act of comparison between two objects of unlike nature but like qualities with the use of "as" or "like". It is a slightly compressed form of analogy, but more vivid than metaphor.

28. Synaesthesia: This is the description of an object with another unrelated object, like using words related to sound when describing looks.

29. Synedoche: This is the representation of a whole with a part of it.

30. Synonymia: This is the use of synonyms to emphasize and amplify a word.

All these figures are used one after the other in the lines of the following poem. Only run-on line is given two lines to show its effect. It is possible that a line has more than a figure. Still, only a figure is intended to be reflected.

SCHOLARS AND LIFE

Life, what a wise man you are!
Living like a legend lingeringly
Life is a file
Life is a sage as if Mr. Aristotle in his Metaphysics.
Life presents a present to present peoples.
Scholars reread, read and write about life.
Life is the creator that creation moulds
The Shakespeares have directed its paths
Weary will we be not
To assess and document and teach life.
A doss gross loss will be
As it does
We shall be gentle, mute scholars.
Nay! A million words we shall write
Even though life writes us wisely
It is no surprise that he is a sage
Life is a tortoise
And nature is a fox
Even the twitter of birds
Is a melancholy melody
And accident is a wonderful interloper
And ink is its intelligent operator.
It happens on a dais in a week.
Life is a teacher, a teacher of a life
Who won't learn?
All our saga
's got from it!
Scholars are like pupils
And the metallic baritone of life
'Ll teach our eyes in this class!
He is a teacher, tutor, yea, mentor.

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