Understanding Figures of Speech
Understanding Literary Devices
Synecdoche: Using a part to represent the whole, or vice versa. For example, referring to someone as “the Apostle” or a cruel person as “a Nero.”
Allegory: A story or image in which the characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Example: Cupid’s band and wings.
Hyperbole: Exaggeration used for emphasis or effect.
Irony: Expressing the opposite of what is literally said, often for humorous or emphatic effect.
Metaphor
A trope that transfers the literal meaning of a word or phrase to another, based on an implicit comparison. Examples: “pearls of dew,” “the spring of life,” “control of the passions.”
Metonymy: Substituting the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated. Examples: “gray hair” for age, “reading Virgil” for reading Virgil’s works, “the laurel” for glory.
Synesthesia: Combining sensations from different sensory domains. Examples: “Soledad sonora” (sonorous solitude), “Verde gaudy” (gaudy green).
Alliteration: Repetition of the same or similar sounds, especially consonants, at the beginning of words in a phrase or sentence. Contributes to the structure or expression of the verse.
Epiphora
Repetition of a word or words at the end of successive clauses or verses.
Gradation or Concatenation: Arranging words or phrases in ascending or descending order of significance, each expressing more or less than the last.
Polysyndeton: The repeated use of conjunctions to emphasize concepts.
Paronomasia: A play on words using words that sound similar but have different meanings. Example: “door” and “port.”
Parallelism: Repetition of the same sentence structure, phrase, or word in a text, with minor variations. Example: The chorus is a sample of parallelism.
Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions to create a sense of vividness and energy.
Ellipsis: The omission of a word or words that are understood from the context.
Hyperbaton: Inversion of the normal order of words in a sentence.
Antithesis: Contrasting a sentence or word with another of opposite meaning.
Paradox
A statement that appears self-contradictory but contains a deeper truth. Example: “Watch the miser, in his riches, poor.”
Comparison: Likening one thing to another. Comparing old age to a sunset does not change the meaning of either term. A simile involves a real term (A) and an imaginary term or image (B), using grammatical frames such as “A is like B.”
Description: Representing persons or things through language, explaining their different parts, qualities, or circumstances.
Personification: Attributing human qualities or actions to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.
Apostrophe or Invocation: Addressing someone or something (present or absent, living or dead, abstract or inanimate) directly.
Exclamation: Expressing strong emotion or surprise.
Rhetorical Question: A question asked for effect, not requiring an answer.