6. FIGURES BASED ON SOUND
a. PUN / PARONOMASIA: In a Pun two words with similar sound are used or a single word with two different meanings is used.
Example: All a cobbler lives is by his awl.
Here two different words with similar sound-all and awl are used to convey different senses.
More Examples:
a) The person told the Sexton and he tolled the bell. (‘told’ means ‘said’; ‘tolled’ means ‘rang’)
b) I am too light to bear this light. (the two ‘light’ mean ‘weak’ and ‘illumination’)
c) The will of a living daughter is curbed by the will of a dead father. (the two ‘will’ refer ‘testament’ and ‘desire’ respectively)
d) Me list no longer rotten bowes to climb. (‘bowes’ has two senses—‘bows’ and ‘boughs’)
b. ALLITERATION: In Alliteration same letters or syllables are repeated at the beginnings of successive or nearly successive words
Example: How high His Highness holds his haughty head.
Here the letter 'h' is repeated for several times in the beginning of nearly successive words.
More Examples:
a) The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, / The furrow followed free.
b) In a summer season, when soft was the sun.
c) Alone, alone, all, all, alone, / Alone on a wide, wide sea.
c. ONOMATOPOEIA: In Onomatopoeia the sound of a word is made to echo its sense.
Example: The swallow is twittering.
Here the word ‘twittering’ echoes the sense, i.e., the sound of a sparrow.
More Examples:
a) And murmuring of the innumerable bees.
b) It cracked, and growled, and roared, and howled.
c) And Niagara stuns with thundering sound.
d) Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle.
7. FIGURES BASED ON CONSTRUCTION
a. INTERROGATION / EROTESIS: In this figure something is denied or affirmed very strongly under the form of an interrogation in order to achieve impressiveness.
Example: Who loves not freedom?
Here the idea that ‘Everyone loves freedom’ has been strongly affirmed under the form of an interrogation.
More Examples:
a) Hath not a Jew eye?
b) O cuckoo, shall I call thee bird, / Or but a wandering voice?
c) To be, or not to be, that is the question;
Whether, ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
b. EXCLAMATION: Exclamation is the abrupt, inverted or elliptical expression of emotion, the language of wish or of contemplation which produces a sublime effect.
It is generally introduced by interjections or such words as ‘how’, ‘what’, etc; there is a mark of exclamation in the end.
Example: O, what a fall was there, my countryman!
This is an expression of emotion, and it is introduce by the interjection ‘o’, and carries exclamatory mark.
More Examples:
a) What a piece of work is a man!
b) Ah! woe is me! Winter is come and gone, / But grief returns with the revolving year.
c) …but oh, how fall’n! how changed / From him!
c. CHIASMUS: This figure consists in the inversion of the order of words or phrases when they are repeated or subsequently referred to in a sentence.
Example: Fair is foul, foul is fair.
Here the order of words (fair is foul) has been inverted (foul is fair) when they are subsequently referred to in the sentence.
More Examples:
a) Beauty is truth, truth beauty.
b) Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
d. ZEUGMA: This figure consists in the use of one verb connecting two nouns for each of which a separate is necessary.
Example: The moment and vessel past.
Here the verb ‘past’ connects two nouns ‘moment’ and ‘vessel’ for each of which a separate is necessary.
More Examples:
a) The feast and noon grew high.
b) Banners on high and battles passed below.
e. HENDIADYS: In a hendiadys two nouns are joined by the conjunction ‘and’, one of which gets the force of an adjective. In this figure a complex idea, which might have been expressed by a noun qualified by an adjective, is brought out.
Example: Perfume and flowers fell in showers.
Here ‘perfumes’ and ‘flowers’ are two nouns connected by ‘and’. The noun ‘perfume’ assumes the force of an adjective to express the complex idea, ‘perfumed flowers’.
More Examples:
a) The hall was full of melody and misses. (melodious misses)
b) She is dressed in gold and ornaments. (golden ornaments)
c) With joy and tiding fraught. (joyous tiding)
f. HYPERBATON / INVERSION: This figure consists in the inversion of the grammatical order of words in a sentence for the sake of emphasis.
Example: Silver and gold I have none.
Here the correct word order ‘I have none silver or gold’ has been inverted to create a strong impression in mind.
More Examples:
a) Out of suffering comes success.
b) Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold.
g. LITOTES: In this figure a strong affirmative idea is expressed by the denial or negation of its opposite for the sake of emphasis.
Example: The sight was not earthly.
Here the idea ‘unearthly’ or ‘heavenly’ is expressed by the negation of its opposite ‘earthly’.
More Examples:
a) No maiden’s hand is round the throne. (Man’s)
b) This is no joyous matter. (sorrowful)
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