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CHAPTER XII.

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Definition.

172. A figure of speech is a form of expression which departs widely and strikingly in certain specified ways from what is literal, straightforward, and matter-of-fact.

The ways must be specified, otherwise there will be no distinction between figurative language and language that is simply picturesque or imaginative. When Shakespeare says, for example:

"I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news,"

the entire passage departs widely and strikingly from what is plain, literal, and matter-of-fact, yet only the last line, because it contains the word "swallowing," would ordinarily be called figurative.

The names of the most common figures are as follows:

1. Metaphor. 2. Simile.

3. Synecdoche.

4. Metonymy.

6. Apostrophe. 11. Irony.
7. Allegory. 12. Epigram.
8. Antithesis. 13. Hyperbole.
14. Interrogation.

9. Climax.

5. Personification. 10. Anticlimax.

Classes of Figures.

173. These figures fall naturally into the following groups:

1. Figures of Imagery. In this class may be placed figurative expressions which differ from the literal in that they arouse in the mind of the reader vivid images of things. Metaphor, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, apostrophe, and allegory may be assigned to this division.

2. Figures of Arrangement. - These are figures in which there is some peculiar and striking arrangement of words, phrases, clauses, or sentences corresponding to some peculiar succession of ideas in the mind. The figures if they may be called figures-which fall under this head are antithesis and climax.

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3. Figures of Contradiction. This term, in default of a better, may be applied to forms of expression in which there is an apparent contradiction between the thought to be expressed and the form in which it finds expression. Here belong anticlimax (in the good sense), irony, epigram, hyperbole, and interrogation. Hyperbole, however, may be classed also as a figure of imagery.

These three groups will be taken up in order, and the separate figures defined and illustrated.

Figures of Imagery.

174. Metaphor. A metaphor is an expression in which one object is spoken of under the image of another. Thus a gust of wind which heralds a storm may be

spoken of under the image of a frightened man, as in the following from Lowell's Summer Storm :

Now leaps the wind on the sleepy marsh,

And tramples the grass with terrified feet.

Or the stars may be spoken of under the image of flowers as in Longfellow's Evangeline:

Silently one by one in the infinite meadows of heaven Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

Or the operations of the memory may be spoken of under the image of the resurrection:

His (Milton's) poetry acts like an incantation. Its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power, and there would seem at first sight to be no more in his words than in other words. But they are words of enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced than the past is present and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all the burial-places of the memory give up their dead. MACAULAY: Essay on Milton.

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Simile. In the simile an object is represented to the imagination as being like some other object, or as acting like some other object.

In the following passage from Wordsworth, the evening is represented as being like a nun at her devotions:

The holy time is quiet as a nun

Breathless with adoration.

Sir Isaac Newton compared his discoveries in science to the actions of a child picking up pebbles on the beach:

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I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the

seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Other examples are:

A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.

-JOHNSON: Tour to the Hebrides, September 30, 1773. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. Proverbs xxv, 25.

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Dryden's imagination resembled an ostrich. It enabled him to run, but not to soar. - MACAULAY: Essay on Dryden.

Cautions on the use of Metaphor and Simile. - Persons who are learning to write are especially liable to error in the use of these two classes of figures. The following cautions may therefore be useful:

1. Figures striking figures at any rate-are not essential to a good prose style. Many eminent writers dispense with them almost entirely.

2. The only recipe for producing good figures is for the pupil to become deeply interested in his subject. If his mind is given to producing figurative images, the images will come unsolicited. If such images do not come

of themselves, it is better to get on without them.

3. In revising his written work, the pupil should take care that figurative expressions meet the following requirements:

a. Figures should be fresh and unhackneyed. If an image occurs that has been used a great many times before, consider whether the reader is likely to get any pleasure from it when he comes upon it again.

b. Figures should grow naturally out of the subject and be appropriate to the purpose for which one is writing. The image of "something else" should differ from and yet curiously and significantly resemble the thing or idea that it pictures. The following passage from Macaulay contains an example of a metaphor that is good and a metaphor that is bad in this respect :

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The works of Milton cannot be comprehended or enjoyed unless the mind of the reader coöperate with that of the writer. He does not paint a finished picture or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches, and leaves others to fill up the outline. He strikes the key-note and expects his hearer to make out the melody.

The image of a painter sketching a picture and leaving us to fill up the outline is natural and appropriate. We see at once its resemblance to the mode of writing employed by Milton. But the image of a musician striking a key-note and expecting his hearers to make out the melody is highly absurd. No musician would do such a thing, and, even if he should, his act would have no resemblance to Milton's poetry.

c. Images of things that are familiar are easier to apprehend than images of things that are unfamiliar. "His voice has an odd note in it like the cry of a whaup" does not mean very much to persons brought up in America, because few of them have heard a whaup cry. The following, however, appeals to every "Innumerable tawny and yellow leaves skimmed along the pavement, and stole through people's doorways into their passages, with a hesitating scratch on the floor, like the skirts of timid visitors."

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