Figure of speech

Apostrophe Apostrope o Pagtawag

Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy O tukso! Layuan mo ako!
victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55, Saint Paul of Tarsus
Kamatayan nasaan ka na? wakasan mo na ang aking
William Shakespeare kapighatian.
"O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of
earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these Araw, sumikat ka na at tuyuin ang luhang dala ng
butchers! / Thou art the ruins of the noblest kapighatian.
man / That ever lived in the tide of times."
Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1 Ulan, ulan kamiy lubayan na.

"O God! God!" Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2 Oh, birheng kaibig-ibig ina naming nasa langit,
Liwanagin yaring isip, nang sa layon di malihi.
"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The
handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee! I have thee not, and yet I see
thee still." Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1

"O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there

rust, and let me die." Romeo and Juliet, act 5,
scene 3, 169-170).

To what green altar, O mysterious priest, / Lead'st

thou that heifer lowing at the skies, / And all her silken
flanks with garlands drest?" John Keats, "Ode on a
Grecian Urn"

"O eloquent, just, and mighty Death!" Sir Walter

Raleigh, A Historie of the World

"Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and

mighty opium!" Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of
an English Opium-Eater

"Roll on, thou dark and deep blue Ocean -- roll!"

Lord Byron, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"

"Thou glorious sun!" Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "This

Lime Tree Bower"

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee /

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so." John
Donne, "Holy Sonnet X"

"And you, Eumaeus..." Homer, the Odyssey

"O My friends, there is no friend." Montaigne,

originally attributed to Aristotle

"Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!" Herman Melville,

"Bartleby, the Scrivener"

"O black night, nurse of the golden eyes!" Electra in

Euripides' Electra (c. 410 BC, line 54), in the
translation by David Kovacs (1998).
 "Then come, sweet death, and rid me of this grief."
[(Queen Isabel in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe)]

Assonance

English poetry is rich with examples of assonance:

That solitude which suits abstruser musingsSamuel Taylor

Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight"

on a proud round cloud in white high nightE. E. Cummings,

if a cheerfulest Elephantangelchild should sit

It also occurs in prose:

Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they

swished in low circles round and round the field, winding
hither and thither through the weeds.James Joyce,
"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

English-language hip hop relies on assonance, which is

sometimes hard to distinguish from slant rhyme:

Some vodka that'll jumpstart my heart quicker than a

shock when I get shocked at the hospital by the doctor
when I'm not cooperating...Eminem, Without Me

Dead in the middle of little Italy little did we know that

we riddled some middleman who didn't do diddly.Big
Pun, Twinz

It is also heard in other forms of popular music:

I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and

restlessThin Lizzy, "With Love"

Dot my I's with eyebrow pencils, close my eyelids, hide

my eyes. I'll be idle in my ideals. Think of nothing else
but IKeaton Henson, "Small Hands"

Assonance is common in proverbs, such as:

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

The early bird catches the worm.

These proverbs can be a form of short poetry, as in the

following Oromo proverb, which describes someone with
a big reputation among those who do not know them well:

kan mana baala, alaa gaala (A leaf at home, but a camel

elsewhere)

Note the complete assonance in this Amharic proverb:

 ylmmn mnmmn (The one who begs fades away)
Simile
As alike as two peas in a pod (meaning identical
As blind as a bat (can't see very well at all)
As busy as a bee (very busy)
As cold as a fish (unemotional)
As clean as a whistle (very clean)
Simili o pagtutulad
Tila yelo sa lamig ang kamay na nenenerbyos ng mang-
aawit.
Si Menandro'y lobong nagugutom ang kahalintulad.
Ang kanyang kagandahan ay mistulang bituing
nagninigning.
Ang mga tumakas ay ikinulong na parang mga sardines sa
piitan.

As clear as mud (ironic, meaning not clear at all)
As cool as a cucumber (someone who stays calm)
As delicate as a flower (fragile)
Si maria na animo'y bagong pitas na rosas ay hindi napa-
ibig ng mayamang dayuhan.
Gaya ng maamong tupa si Jun kapag nakagalitan.
Tila porselana ang kutis ni Celia.

As easy as ABC (very simple) Ang tao ay kawangis ng Diyos.

Fit as a fiddle (very healthy)

Free as a bird (free to go anywhere)

Fresh as a daisy (clean and fresh)

As gentle as a lamb (very gentle)

Good as gold (very good)

Red as a beet (embarrassed)

To Leak like a sieve (full of holes)

As light as a feather (light in weight)

As plain as day (clear to see)

As quick as a wink (happens in a short amount of time)

Sleep like a baby (sleeping soundly)

As silly as a goose (very foolish)

As hard as nails (a person who is very tough)

As slow as molasses (moves very slowly)

As old as the hills (very old)

Pure as driven snow (innocent, chaste)

Run like the wind (run very quickly)

Sick as a dog (very sick)

As slippery as a fish (a person who is not trustworthy)

Sly as a fox (a person who is clever and tricky)

As smooth as silk (very smooth)

Snug as a bug in a rug (comfortable and warm)

Strong as an ox (very strong)

Sturdy as an oak tree (very strong)

As stubborn as a mule (very obstinate)

Sweet as honey (very sweet)

Tall as a tree (very tall)

Thick as a brick (not very smart)

As tough as nails (very tough)

As wise as an owl (very wise)

Metaphor
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances[...]
William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Metapora o pagwawangis
Siyay langit na di kayang abutin nino man.
Ang kanyang mga kamay ay yelong dumampi sa aking
pisngi.

A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one
identification to a second identification inconsistent
with the first, e.g.:
I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud"-Irish
politician Boyle Roche
Matigas na bakal ang kamao ng boksingero.
Ikaw na bulaklak niring dilidili.
Ahas siya sa grupong iyan.

This form is often used as a parody of metaphor itself:

If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the

dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
Futurama character Zapp Brannigan.

My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he was too

angry.)

The assignment was a breeze. (This implies that the

assignment was not difficult.)

It is going to be clear skies from now on. (This implies

that clear skies are not a threat and life is going to be
without hardships)

The skies of his future began to darken. (Darkness is a

threat; therefore, this implies that the coming times
are going to be hard for him.)

Her voice is music to his ears. (This implies that her

voice makes him feel happy)

She is all states, and all princes, I.

John Donne he explains she is all states, and all
princes, I. This line demonstrates the speakers belief
that he and his beloved are richer than all states,
kingdoms, and rulers in the entire world because of
the love that they share.
 Shall I Compare Thee to a summers Day,
William Shakespeare was the best exponent of the use
of metaphors. His poetical works and dramas all make
wide-ranging use of metaphors.
Sonnet 18,also known as Shall I Compare Thee to
a Summers Day, is an extended metaphor between
the love of the speaker and the fairness of the summer
season. He writes that thy eternal summer, here
taken to mean the love of the subject, shall not fade.

Before high-pild books, in charactry / Hold like

rich garners the full-ripened grain,
The great Romantic poet John Keats suffered great
losses in his life the death of his father in an accident,
and of his mother and brother through tuberculosis.
When he began displaying signs of tuberculosis
himself at the age of 22, he wrote When I Have
Fears, a poem rich with metaphors concerning life
and death. In the line before high-pild books, in
charactry / Hold like rich garners the full-ripened
grain, he employs a double-metaphor. Writing poetry
is implicitly compared with reaping and sowing, and
both these acts represent the emptiness of a life
unfulfilled creatively.

'Out in the porch's sagging floor, Leaves got up in a

coil and hissed, Blindly struck at my knee and
missed.'-- Robert Frost's 'Bereft'.

Personification Personipikasyon o pagtatao

The flame of the candle danced in the dark. Hinalikan ako ng malamig na hangin.

The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky. Ang mga bituin sa langit ay kumikindat sa atin.

Opportunity was knocking at her door.

Nahiya ang buwan at nagkanlong sa ulap.
At precisely 6:30 am my alarm clock sprang in to life.
Sumasayaw ang mga dahon sa pag-ihip ng hangin.
The tornado ran through town without a care.
Nagtago ang buwan sa likod ng ulap.
Time creeps up on you.

The hare laughed at the tortoise.

The tsunami raced towards the coastline.

The sun smiled and chased away the angry clouds

Taken from L. M. Montgomerys The Green Gables

Letters,
I hied me away to the woodsaway back into the sun-
washed alleys carpeted with fallen gold and glades where
the moss is green and vivid yet. The woods are getting
ready to sleepthey are not yet asleep but they are
disrobing and are having all sorts of little bed-time
conferences and whisperings and good-nights.
The lack of activity in the forest has been beautifully
personified as the forest getting ready to sleep, busy in
bed-time chatting and wishing good-nights, all of which
are human customs.

Taken from Act I, Scene II of Romeo and Juliet,

When well-appareled April on the heel
Of limping winter treads.
There are two personification examples here. April cannot
put on a dress, and winter does not limp and it does not
have a heel on which a month can walk. Shakespeare
personifies the month of April and the winter season by
giving them two distinct human qualities.

A.H. Houseman in his poem Loveliest of Trees the

Cherry Now personifies the cherry tree,
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
He sees a cherry tree covered with beautiful white flowers
in the forest and says that the cherry tree wears white
clothes to celebrate Easter. He gives human attributes to a
tree in order to describe it in human terms.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson employs personification in her

poem Have You Got A Brook In Your Little Heart.
Have you got a brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?
The bashful flowers, blushing birds and trembling
shadows are examples of personification.

Katherine Mansfield wrote in her short story How Pearl

Button Was Kidnapped,
Pearl Button swung on the little gate in front of the
House of Boxes. It was the early afternoon of a sunshiny
day with little winds playing hide-and-seek in it.
It personifies wind by saying that it is as playful as little
children playing hide-and-seek on a shiny day.

William Blake personifies Sunflowers in his poem Two

Sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room.
Two Sunflowers
Move in the Yellow Room.
Ah, William, were weary of weather,
said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
Our traveling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?
The flowers are depicting a human characteristic of
weariness caused by the weather. In a human way, they
make a request to the poet to put them in a room with a
window with plenty of sunshine.

Anaphora Anapora
In time the savage bull sustains the yoke, Ang bagay ay gawa ng lahat,para sa lahat at galling
In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure, sa lahat .
In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak,
In time the flint is pierced with softest shower. Mas makapangyarihan ang pamahalaan ,kontrolado
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, I, vi. 3 ng pamahalaan at dapat kang sumunod sa
pamahalaan.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost. Ang lahat ay may halaga,kahit anung liit nito ay may
For want of a horse the rider was lost. halaga kaya pahalagahan natin kahit kaunti man
For want of a rider the message was lost. basta may halaga.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
14th century proverb

Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!

William Shakespeare, King John, II, i

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
William Blake, The Tyger

In every cry of every man,

In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
William Blake, London

Strike as I struck the foe! Strike as I would

Have struck those tyrants! Strike deep as my curse!
Strike!and but once!
Byron, Marino Faliero

With malice toward none;

with charity for all;
with firmness in the right,...
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,

Out of the mock-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands, and the fields beyond, where
the child, leaving his bed, wander'd alone, bare-
headed, barefoot,
Down from the shower'd halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and
twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories, sad brother, from the fitful
risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and
swollen as if with tears,
From those beginning notes of yearning and love,
there in the transparent mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart never to
cease,
From the myriad thence-arous'd words,
From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
From such as now they start the scene revisiting,...
Walt Whitman, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly
Rocking"

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it

was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter
of despair, we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven,
we were all going direct the other way...
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We

shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and
oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and
growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the
beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we
shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight
in the hills. We shall never surrender.
Winston Churchill

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp,

which has turned my life into one long night, seven
times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I
forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces
of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into
wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never
shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith
forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence
which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to
live. Never shall I forget those moments which
murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams
to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am
condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.
Elie Wiesel, Night

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Langston Hughes, Let America be America Again

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you

today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and
frustrations of the moment,
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created
equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia
the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave
owners will be able to sit down together at a table of
brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will
be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.
I have a dream today.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
T.S. Eliot, Chorus from "The Rock"

Onomatopoeia Panghihimig o Onomatopeya

The buzzing bee flew away.
The sack fell into the river with a splash.
The books fell on the table with a loud thump.
He looked at the roaring sky.
The rustling leaves kept me awake.
Synecdoche
Ang himig nitong ibon,agus nitong ilog ay
nagpapakita ng kayamanan sakagubatan.
Ang alimuyak na bulaklak,mayamang halaman ay
nakapagdulot ng katiwasayan.
Ang mabungad na pagsalamuha, galang na pagbati
ay nakagagaan ng loob.
Senekdoke o Pagpapalit-saklaw

The word bread refers to food or money as in Hangang mawasak mo ang aking puso.(puso-
Writing is my bread and butter or sole damdamin)
breadwinner.
Kahit sirain mo pa ang aking mga kamay. (Kamay-
The phrase gray beard refers to an old man. pangarap)

The word sails refers to a whole ship. Hanaggat matigas pa ang aking mga paa.(paa-katawan)

The word suits refers to businessmen.

The word boots usually refers to soldiers.

The term coke is a common synecdoche for all

carbonated drinks.

Pentagon is a synecdoche when it refers to a few

decision makers.

The word glasses refers to spectacles.

Coppers often refers to coins.

Coleridge employs synecdoche in his poem The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner:

The western wave was all a-flame.

The day was well was nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun
The western wave is a synecdoche as it refers to the
sea by the name of one of its parts i.e. wave.

Look at the use of synecdoche in the lines taken from

Shakespeares Sonnet 116:

O no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

The phrase ever-fixed mark refers to a lighthouse.

Look how Shelly uses synecdoche in his poem

Ozymandias:
 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them.

The hand in the above lines refers to the sculptor

who carved the lifeless things into a grand statue.

Observe the use of synecdoche in the following lines

from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad:

At midnight I went on deck, and to my mates

great surprise put the ship round on the other tack.
His terrible whiskers flitted round me in silent
criticism.

The word whiskers mentioned in the above lines

refers to the whole face of the narrators mate.

Jonathan Swift in The Description of the Morning

uses synecdoche:

Prepard to scrub the entry and the stairs.

The youth with broomy stumps began to trace.

In the above lines the phrase broomy stumps refers

to the whole broom.

Note the use of synecdoche in The Lady or the Tiger?

by Frank R. Stockton:

His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter
than anyone in the vast ocean of anxious faces about
her.

Faces refers to people (not just their faces).

Metonymy Pagpapalit-tawag o Metonymy

Tumanggap siya ng mga palakpak (papuri) sa kanyang
England decides to keep check on immigration. tagumpay.
(England refers to the government.)
Ibinigay sa kanya ang korona (posisyon) ng pagka-
The pen is mightier than the sword. (Pen refers to pangulo.
written words and sword to military force.)
Ang panulat ay mas makapangyahiran kaysa sa espada.
The Oval Office was busy in work. (The Oval
Office is a metonymy as it stands for people at work
in the office.)

Let me give you a hand. (Hand means help.)

The given lines are from Shakespeares Julies

Caesar Act I.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

Mark Anthony uses ears to say that he wants the

people present there to listen to him attentively. It is a
metonymy because the word ears replaces the
concept of attention.
Example #2

This line is from Margaret Mitchells novel Gone

with the Wind.

Im mighty glad Georgia waited till after

Christmas before it secedes or it would have ruined
the Christmas parties.

Scarlett uses Georgia to point out everything that

makes up the state: citizens, politician, government
etc. It is a metonymy extremely common in the
modern world, where a name of a country or state
refers to a whole nation and its government. Thus, it
renders brevity to the ideas.
Example #3

These lines are taken from Out, Out by Robert

Frost.

As he swung toward them holding up the hand

Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling

In these lines, the expression The life from spilling is

a metonymy that refers to spilling of blood. It develops
a link between life and blood. The loss of too much
blood means loss of life.

Example #4

These lines are from the poem Yet Do I Marvel.

The little buried mole continues blind,

Why flesh that mirror Him must someday die,

Countee Cullen uses flesh to represent human and

questions God why we have to die when we are created
in His likeness.
Example #5

These lines are from Lycidas written by John Milton.

But now my oat proceeds,

And listens to the herald of the sea
That came in Neptunes plea,
He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds,
What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain?

In the above-mentioned lines, John Milton uses oat

for a musical instrument made out of an oak-stalk.
Thus, oat represents the song that the poet is
composing next to the ocean.

When Detroit increased auto production recently, Wall

Street applauded and the White House took credit.'

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of

one thing is used for the name of something else that is
associated with it, as in the above use of 'Detroit' for
'the auto industry', 'Wall Street' for 'the stock
market', and 'the White House' for 'the President'.