Figurative Devices

1. Figurative Devices Part I

2. What is Figurative Language? • Figurative language is a name given to a class of literary conventions that are… • not meant to be interpreted literally, but rather by utilizing the reader’s imagination or sense of irony… • …or by drawing parallels to other, seemingly unrelated, events and ideas.

3. Simile • a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usually using the words like, than, or as to draw the connection • Example: • “Grey-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone.” - John Keats

4. Metaphor • an implied comparison or identification of one thing with another unlike itself without the use of a verbal signal. • Example: • “This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath may prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.” -William Shakespeare

5. Personification • treating an abstraction as if it were a person by endowing it with humanlike qualities • Example: • “Love laughs at locksmiths.” George Colman

6. Hyperbole • overstatement characterized by exaggerated language • Example: • “At every word a reputation dies.” Alexander Pope

7. Understatement • placing emphasis by saying less than what is meant • Example: • “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Mark Twain

8. Imagery • A pattern of language that is the verbal equivalent of sensory experience in a text. Types include visual (sight), auditory (sound), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and tactile (touch) imagery. • Example: • “The wind had blown off, leaving a loud bright night with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life.” F. Scott Fitzgerald