FIGURES OF SPEECH

Figurative Language.

There is a generally accepted division of language into literal and figurative. Language that is literal uses words in their accepted and accurate meaning. Figurative language employs words with meanings not strictly literal, but varying from their ordinary definitions.

Much of our language is figurative. When a person says, "He is a bright boy," he has used the word "bright" in a sense that is not literal; the use is figurative. In the following there is hardly a sentence that has not some variation from literal language.

"Down by the river there is, as yet, little sign of spring.

Its bed is all choked with last year's reeds, trampled about like a manger. Yet its running seems to have caught a happier note, and here and there along its banks flash silvery wands of palm. Right down among the shabby burnt-out underwood moves the sordid figure of a man. His hat is battered, and he wears no collar. I don't like staring at his face, for he has been unfortunate. Yet a glimpse tells me that he is far down the hill of life, old and drink-corroded at fifty." (Le Gallienne.)

In the second sentence there are at least three figurative expressions. "Bed," "choked," and "trampled like a manger" are not literal. So, too, in the next sentence there are two beautiful variations from literal expression. Going on through the selection the reader will find frequently some happy change from literalness,--sometimes just a word, sometimes a phrase.

Figurative language is of great value. It adds clearness to our speech; it gives it more force; or it imparts to literature beauty.

The last use is the most common; indeed, it is so common that sometimes the other uses are overlooked. However, when such a sentence as the following is read, the comparison is of value in giving _clearness_ to the thought, although it does not state the literal truth.

"In the early history of our planet, the moon was flung off into space, as mud is thrown from a turning wagon wheel."

_Force_ is often gained by the use of figurative language. The following is a good illustration:--

"Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dextrous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by these people [Americans]; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood."

The next is an illustration of a figure used for _beauty:--_

"Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return."

_A figure of speech is any use of words with a sense varying from their literal definition, to secure clearness, force, or beauty of expression._

Figures add so much to the attractiveness of literature, that every one would like to use them. Yet figures should never be sought for.

When they come of themselves, when they insist on being used, and are a part of the thought itself, and seem to be its only adequate expression, then they should be used. In most cases figures are ornaments of literature; it must be remembered that ornament is always secondary, and that no ornament is good unless it is in entire harmony with the thing it is to beautify. (See Preface, p. viii.)

When a figure suggests itself, it must be so clearly seen that there can be no mixing of images. Some people are determined to use figures, and they force them into every possible place. The result is that there is often a confusion of comparisons. The following is bad: "His name went resounding in golden letters through the corridors of time."

Just how a name could resound "in golden letters" is a difficult question. Longfellow used the last phrase beautifully:--

"Not from the grand old masters, Not from the bards sublime, Whose distant footsteps echo Through the corridors of time."

Of the two hundred or more figures of speech which have been named and defined, only a few need be mentioned here. And the purpose is not that you shall use them more, but that you may recognize them when you meet them in literature.

Figures based upon Likeness.

There is a large group of figures of speech based upon likeness. One thing is so much like another that it is spoken of as like it, or, more frequently, one is said to be the other. Yet if the things compared are very much alike, there is no figure. To say that a cat is like a panther is not considered figurative. It is when in objects essentially different we detect and name some likeness that we say there is a figure of speech. There is at first thought no likeness between hope and a nurse; yet were it not for hope most persons would die. Thackeray was right when he said that "Hope is the nurse of life."

The principal figures based upon likeness are metaphor, epithet, personification, apostrophe, allegory, and simile.

_A metaphor is an implied comparison between things essentially different, but having some common quality._ Metaphor is by far the most common figure of speech; indeed, so common is it that figurative language is often called metaphorical.

"Tombs are the clothes of the dead; a grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered."

"Let me choose; For as I am, I live upon the rack."

"The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep."

Only a little removed from metaphor is epithet. _An epithet is a word, generally a descriptive adjective or a noun, used, not to give information, but to impart strength or ornament to diction._ It is like a shortened metaphor. It is very often found in impassioned prose or verse. Notice that in each epithet there is a comparison; that the figure is based on likeness.

"Here are sever'd lips Parted with _sugar_ breath."

"Base _dog!_ why shouldst thou stand here?"

_Personification is a figure that ascribes to inanimate things, abstract ideas, and the lower animals the attributes of human beings._ It is plain that there must be some resemblance of the lower to the higher, else this figure could not be used. Personification, like the epithet, is a modification of the metaphor. Indeed, in every personification there is also a metaphor.

"When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees And they did make no noise."

"But ever heaves and moans the restless Deep."

_Apostrophe is an address to the dead as if living; to abstract ideas or inanimate objects as if they were persons._ It is a variety of personification.

"O Caledonia! stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child!"

"Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower, Thou's met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem."

"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour."

_Allegory is a narrative in which material things and circumstances are used to illustrate and enforce high spiritual truths._ It is a continued personification. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and Spenser's "Faerie Queene" are good examples of allegory.

All these figures are varieties of metaphor. In them there is always an implied, not an expressed, comparison.

_A simile is an expressed comparison between unlike things that have some common quality._ This comparison is usually indicated by _like_ or _as._

"Ilbrahim was like a domesticated sunbeam, brightening moody countenances, and chasing away the gloom from the dark corners of the cottage."

(Does this figure change to another in its course?)

"How far that little candle throws its beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

Of retired Dutch valleys, Irving wrote:--

"They are like those little nooks of still water which border a rapid stream; where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current."

Figures based upon Sentence Structure.

There are a number of figures that express emotion by simply changing the normal order of the sentence. Among these are inversion, exclamation, interrogation, climax, and irony.

_Inversion is a figure intended to give emphasis to the thought by a change from the natural order of the words in a sentence._

"_Thine_ be the glory!"

"_Few_ were the words they said."