Figures of Speech - Session 7 (Examples)

Question 1

Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor– Bare. (Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son”)

Answer 1

metaphor

Question 2

Turn off your television sets. Turn them off now! Turn them off right now! Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I’m speaking to you now. (Peter Finch as television anchorman Howard Beale in Network, 1976)

Answer 2

anaphora

Question 3

substituting the word “euthanasia” for “mercy killing” or “killing the terminally ill”

Answer 3

euphemism

Question 4

I had so much homework last night that I needed a pickup truck to carry all my books home!

Answer 4

hyperbole

Question 5

Let’s just say that Ms. Hilton is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.

Answer 5

litotes

Question 6

The chug-a, chug-a, chug-a of the train echoed down the hill, while a cloud of smoke rose up to the blue western sky.

Answer 6

onomatopoeia

Question 7

But the prisoner would not answer, he only lay with wide, dark, bright, eyes, like a bound animal. (D. H. Lawrence, England, My England)

Answer 7

oxymoron

Question 8

You have a lot of work to do, so I’ll lend you a hand.

Answer 8

synecdoche

Question 9

Pitching pennies with the Pittsburgh Pirates in a pitter-patter of rain outside the Pitti Palace. (James Thurber, Lanterns and Lances, 1961)

Answer 9

alliteration

Question 10

O Western wind, when wilt thou blow That the small rain down can rain? Christ, that my love were in my arms, And I in my bed again! (Anonymous, “O Western Wind”)

Answer 10

apostrophe

Question 11

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. (Benjamin Franklin)

Answer 11

chiasmus

Question 12

We talked with each other about each other Though neither of us spoke — (Emily Dickinson)

Answer 12

paradox

Question 13

The earth laughs beneath my heavy feet At the blasphemy in my old jangly walk (Billy Corgan, “Thirty-three”)

Answer 13

personification

Question 14

I dig my toes into the sand. The ocean looks like A thousand diamonds strewn Across a blue blanket. (Incubus, “Wish You Were Here”)

Answer 14

simile

Question 15

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. (Genesis 3:19)

Answer 15

metonymy

Question 16

Why do we wait until a pig is dead to cure it?

Answer 16

pun

Question 17

“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)

Answer 17

antithesis

Question 18

My wishes raced through the house high hay And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, . . . (Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill”)

Answer 18

assonance

Question 19

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king, And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine–we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked and waited for the light, And went without the meat and cursed the bread, And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet in his head. (E. A. Robinson, “Richard Cory”)

Answer 19

irony

Question 20

Prospective buyers are advised not to rely heavily on the front brakes, which are not connected. (advertisement for a replica 1925 Rolls-Royce WWI Armored Car)

Answer 20

understatement