FIGURES OF SPEECH explained by Lawal Olajide A.
SIMILE: Simile is a figure of speech which directly compares two different things or objects based on a similar feature they have with the use of ‘as’ or ‘like’.
Example: Ade is as brave as a lion
Ade is a person while lion is an animal (different in nature)
Ade and the lion are bold (similar feature or quality)
The use of ‘as’
The wrestler stood strong like the famous Araba tree
The wrestler is a person while Araba is a tree (different in nature)
The wrestler and Araba possess strong stamina (similar in quality or feature)
The use of ‘like’
METAPHOR: This is a direct comparison of two different things or object based on a similar feature they possess and stating one as the other.
Examples are: Ade is a lion
Ade is a person while a lion is an animal. The fact that Ade has some qualities possessed by a lion either because he is bold or because he is a courageous leader just as the lion is described as the king of the jungle. So he is referred to as a lion.
The wrestler is an Araba tree on the ring.
The wrestler is a strong man while the araba is a strong tree. It is not easy to push either of them down. Since other wrestlers find it difficult to bring the wrestler down and also it is equally difficult to bring down the Araba tree.
PERSONIFICATION
Personification: This is a figure of speech that gives the attributes of animate objects to inanimate objects. In other words, it makes nonliving things take the role of living things. This is done to create effects drawing similarities from what happens around us and the inanimate objects to make it look like these objects have characters like human beings.
Examples:
The pregnant sky will spare nobody when it delivers
This underscores that a heavy rain is about to fall and everyone will be affected. Here the sky is portrayed as a pregnant woman, an attribute only meant for animate objects.
The sun smiles brightly as the travellers journey across
This shows that it is a sunny day. The brightness of the sun is likened to someone smiling. Here the sun is portrayed as a smiling person or animal
The desk laid an ambush for the restless child.
The child must have been carelessly running about and tripped over the desk. So it creates a picture that the desk is an animate object that intentional made the child to fall.
APOSTROPHE
This is a figure of speech which address an animate or abstract object as though it is living and present at the moment when the speech is made. It is a statement directed to an abstract feature as if expecting as response from it.
Examples:
Oh death! What have you done?
The speaker talks as if death is present and seen at the moment.
Debo’s gun…hmmm. What a weapon of treachery. Come let me feel you.
The speaker addresses the gun as though it is living and present.
My pride of Barbados. You have grown so beautiful. My wife cannot resist you now.
The speaker addresses the flower as if it is a living thing and can understand the conversation
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are….
This is also an example of Apostrophe
Unprecedented 