 To err is human; to forgive, divine. (Alexander Pope)
 The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did (Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg
Address)
 That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind. (Neil
Armstrong, 1969)
For example, look at the parallel grammar of Example 1: the word “one,”
followed by an adjective, a noun, and then the word “for.” This accentuates
the opposites by setting them against a backdrop of sameness – in other
words, two very different ideas are being expressed with very, very similar
grammatical structures.
To recap: antithesis has three things:
 Two or more parts
 Reversed or inverted ideas
 (usually) parallel grammatical structure
Antithesis can be a little tricky to see at first. To start,
notice how each of these examples is separated into two
parts. The parts are separated either by a dash, a
semicolon, or the word “but.” Antithesis always has this
multi-part structure (usually there are two parts, but
sometimes it can be more, as we’ll see in later examples).
The parts are not always as obvious as they are in these
examples, but they will always be there.
Next, notice how the second part of each example
contains terms that reverse or invert terms in the first part:
small step vs. giant leap; human vs. divine; we say vs.
they do. In each of the examples, there are several pairs of
contrasted terms between the first part and the second,
which is quite common in antithesis.
Extrapolate- /ɪkˈstræp.ə.leɪt/
to guess or think about what might happen using
information that is already known:
You can't really extrapolate a trend from such a small
sample.
 to use existing information to discover what is likely to
happen or be true in the future:
Speaking about global warming, she said that time
periods of 15 and even 30 years are too brief to
extrapolate changes in climate patterns.
 Hyperbole (pronounced ‘high-purr-bo-lee’) is a figure
of speech in which an author or speaker purposely and
obviously exaggerates to an extreme.
 It is used for emphasis or as a way of making a
description more creative and humorous.
 It is important to note that hyperbole is not meant to be
taken literally; the audience knows it’s an
exaggeration.
-That suitcase weighed a ton!-Spring break will never come.-“I haven’t seen you in a million years!” American poet W.H. Auden writes in “As I Walked Out One
Evening,”
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so he knew ev’ry tree
Kilt him a be ‘are [bear] when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier
-The Ballad Of Davy Crockett LyricsThe audience isn’t supposed to believe that this character
truly knew “every tree” or that he literally killed a bear
when he was “only three.” Instead, hyperbole is used to
exaggerate Davy Crockett’s frontier experience and make
him seem larger than life. Hyperbole is a frequently used
literary device in tall tales, legends, and folk stories. The
audience is aware that such claims are to emphasize the
traits of the characters and not to be taken literally.
Hyperbole
*I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse.
*That purse looks like it cost a million dollars.
*I Love You to the moon and back.
*He feels buried under a mountain of work.
*I’m dying of thirst.
*That dog is the cutest thing alive.
*She loves him more than life itself.
*He heard an ear-splitting shriek.
*This race is going to be the death of me.
*I’m so tired that I could sleep for a week.
*That song is the worst thing I have ever heard.
*This room is so cold that I’m getting hypothermia.
*I am addicted to skateboarding.
*She is more beautiful than the moon and stars.
Hyperbole in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
The story of To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the
Great Depression in Maycomb County, Georgia: a sleepy
town where nothing much ever happens:
--------People moved slowly then. They ambled across the
square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time
about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed
longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing
to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the
boundaries of Maycomb County.----------------------------------------- Amble-to walk at a slow relaxed speed
Hyperbole in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
-People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square,
shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about
everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer.
There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy
and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the
boundaries of Maycomb County.-
Lee's use of hyperbole to describe the town—nothing
to buy, no money to buy it, nowhere to go—links the
difficult economic situation to the townspeople's pace
of life, as well as to the insular, isolated nature of this
community.
Hyperbole in John F. Kennedy's 1962 Nobel Prize Dinner
Speech
In his remarks at a dinner celebrating the 1962 Nobel
Prize winners, JFK paid them the following hyperbolic
compliment:
---------I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White
House. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of
talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been
gathered together at the White House, with the possible
exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.----------
The exaggeration in Parker's Back by Flannery O'Connor
helps to set up the characterization.
--------"The skin on her face was as thin and drawn as tight
as the skin of onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like
the points of two picks.“---------------------------------------_______________________________________________
In this example from Banner in the Sky, James Ramsey
Ullman shows how dynamic contrast can heighten emotion.
-------"It was not a mere man he was holding, but a giant;
or a block of granite. The pull was unendurable. The pain
unendurable.“---------------------------------------------------Endure-to suffer something painful or uncomfortable, usually
without complaining
A great example of hyperbole in literature comes from the
narrator's opening remarks in the American folktale Babe
the Blue Ox. It comically gets across just how cold it was.
----------"Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the
geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even
the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all
spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People
had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking
about the night before.“---------------------------------------
Old Times on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
Old Times on the Mississippi by Mark Twain contains an
example of hyperbole to dramatize a feeling of
helplessness.
----------"I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to
do. I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung
my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far.“--------
Understatement
An understatement is a figure of speech employed by
writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation
seem less important than it really is.
For example, you win 10 million dollars in a lottery. When
you tell a news reporter “I am delighted,” you are making
an understatement. Similarly, suppose a team loses to its
opponent 50 to 0 in a soccer match, and the captain of the
team says in a post-match ceremony, “We did not do well,”
it is an understatement because he is trying to decrease the
intensity of the loss.
“Deserts are sometimes hot, dry, and sandy.” – Describing
deserts of the world.
“He is not too thin.” – Describing an obese person.
“It rained a bit more than usual.” – Describing an area being
flooded by heavy rainfall.
“It was O.K.” – Said by the student who got the highest score on
the test.
In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield says:
----“I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have
this tiny little tumor on the brain.”----Having a tumor in the brain is a serious issue, which has been
understated in this excerpt.
 An understatement is a tool that helps to develop other
figures of speech, such as irony and sarcasm, by
deliberately decreasing the severity of a situation, when an
intense response is expected by the listeners or the readers.
Foil Characters
A foil refers to any two characters who are “opposites” of
each other.
A foil refers to any two characters who are “opposites” of
each other. These oppositions are often conceptual in nature:
one character may be even-keeled and mild, like Benvolio in
Romeo & Juliet, while another character may be quicktempered and pugnacious, like Tybalt.
 According to Oxford:
Irony is the use of words that say the opposite of what you
really mean, often as a joke and with a tone of voice that
show this.
 What Merriam-Webster's Advanced Dictionary
says:
Irony is the use of words that mean the opposite of what
you really think especially in order to be funny.
Irony (pronounced ‘eye-run-ee’) is when there are two
contradicting meanings of the same situation, event, image,
sentence, phrase, or story.
 In many cases, this refers to the difference between
expectations and reality.
Verbal Irony
Irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means
another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the
opposite of the literal meaning.
 Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (1599): In one
famous scene of this Shakespeare play, Mark Antony
notes that "Brutus is an honorable man" despite well
knowing that the story's main character Brutus could be
tied directly to Caesar's assassination. His words do not
reflect his true feelings.
 In Beauty and the Beast, an animated Disney movie,
Belle refuses to marry Gaston by saying "I just don't
deserve you!”
 What a great day: I crashed my car and lost my winning
lottery ticket!
______Here, the speaker is using “great” ironically. They’ve
actually had a terrible day! But they say the opposite of what
they mean to draw attention to the difference between a
“great” day and the one they really had._____________
My own dear love, he is strong and bold
And he cares not what comes after.
His words ring sweet as a chime of gold,
And his eyes are lit with laughter.
He is jubilant as a flag unfurled—
Oh, a girl, she’d not forget him.
My own dear love, he is all my world,—
And I wish I’d never met him.
My own dear love, he is strong and bold
And he cares not what comes after.
His words ring sweet as a chime of gold,
And his eyes are lit with laughter.
He is jubilant as a flag unfurled—
Oh, a girl, she’d not forget him.
My own dear love, he is all my world,—
And I wish I’d never met him.
Parker utilizes situational irony as a literary device to set up
an incongruity between what the reader expects to happen in
the poem and what actually does happen. In this case, the
poem’s title and the poet’s words of praise and adulation set
the reader up to expect that the poem is an expression of the
poet’s deep and steadfast love. Instead, the final line of the
first stanza presents a situation that is entirely the opposite
of what is expected; the poet states that she wishes she had
never met the man that she claims as her “own dear love.”
This short story by O. Henry is considered one of the best examples of
situational irony in literature. It has been re-told and adapted as an example
of giving and sacrifice, especially during the Christmas season. In the story, a
young married couple with little money decide to sell what is most precious
to themselves in order to purchase something valuable for the other. Della,
the wife, sells her long beautiful hair to buy her husband Jim a watch chain.
In turn, Jim sells his watch chain to buy Della combs for her hair. Since
neither of them any longer possess the items for which their gifts are
intended, in the end the gifts are essentially worthless. This creates
situational irony in terms of the gift exchange and also the level of their
sacrifice for each other.
Examples of Situational Irony in Literature:
1. In "The Gift of the Magi," by O. Henry, the husband sells his watch to
buy his wife combs for her hair and the wife sells her hair to buy her
husband a chain for his watch.
2. In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge, the men are
surrounded by an ocean of water, but they are dying of thirst ("Water,
water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.")
3. "The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin tells of a wife who learns that
her husband is dead. She feels a sense of freedom as she thinks about a
life without restriction. Then, he returns (he wasn't dead after all) and she
dies of shock.
4. In "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, a woman borrows what she
thinks is a costly necklace from a friend and loses it. She and her husband
sacrifice to replace it, only to learn years later that the necklace was a
fake.
Dramatic irony is an important stylistic device that is
commonly found in plays, movies, theaters, and sometimes
in poetry. Storytellers use this irony as a useful plot device
for creating situations in which the audience knows more
about the situations, the causes of conflicts, and their
resolutions before the leading characters or actors. That is
why readers observe that the speech of actors takes on
unusual meanings.
For instance, the audience knows that a character is going to
be murdered, or will make a decision to commit suicide;
however, one particular character or others may not be
aware of these facts. Hence, the words and actions of
characters would suggest a different meaning to the
audience from what they indicate to the characters and the
story. Thus, it creates intense suspense and humor. This
speech device also emphasizes, embellishes, and conveys
emotions and moods more effectively.
Example #2: There’s Something About Mary (By Jonathan
Richman)
“I’ve done it several times before.”
“It’s no big deal.”
--Jonathan Richman’s comedy movie, There’s Something
About Mary, contains several instances of dramatic irony. -For instance, when Ted thinks that the police have arrested
him for picking up a hitchhiker, the audience knows that the
police are actually interrogating him about a murder.
Therefore, when Ted delivers these seemingly-innocuous
lines, it is comedic to the audience.
Innocuous-/ɪˈnɒk.ju.əs-completely harmless (= causing no
harm):Some mushrooms look innocuous but are in fact
poisonous.
Example #3: Othello (By William Shakespeare)
“Othello: I think thou dost. (I think you are.)
And for I know thou ‘rt full of love and honesty
And weigh’st thy words before thou giv’st them
breath…”
This is another very good example of dramatic irony, when
Iago manipulates Othello, and Othello puts his faith in Iago
as an honest man. However, Iago is plotting against him
without his knowledge. Again, the audience knows that Iago
is deceiving, but Othello does not.
Pun
A pun is a literary device that is also known as a “play on
words.” Puns involve words with similar or identical sounds
but with different meanings. Their play on words also relies
on a word or phrase having more than one meaning. Puns
are generally intended to be humorous, but they often have
a serious purpose as well in literary works.
Apocalypse soon
Coming our way
Ground zero at noon
Halve a nice day.
“Corduroy pillows are making headlines.”
[Alice:] ‘You see the earth takes twenty-four hours to
turn round on its axis–‘
‘Talking of axes,’ said the Duchess, ‘chop off her head!’
Ground Zero-a starting point or base for an activity.
Blank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming
verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it
has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line
(pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by
stressed ones, five of which are stressed but do not rhyme.
It is also known as “un-rhymed iambic pentameter.”
Iambic
In a line of poetry, an ‘iamb’ is a foot or beat consisting of
an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Or another way to think of it it a short syllable followed by a
long syllable. For example, deLIGHT, the SUN, forLORN,
one DAY, reLEASE. English is the perfect language for
iambus because of the way the stressed and unstressed
syllables work. (Interestingly, the iamb sounds a little like a
heartbeat).
Pentameter
‘Penta’ means five, so pentameter simply means five meters.
A line of poetry written in iambic pentameter has five feet =
five sets of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables
Putting these two terms together, iambic pentameter is a
line of writing that consists of ten syllables in a specific
pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable, or a short syllable followed by a long syllable.
Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 starts ‘Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?’. This line of poetry has five feet, so it’s
written in pentameter. And the stressing pattern is all iambs
(an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable):
Shall I | compARE | thee TO | a SUM | mers DAY?
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
Features of Blank Verse
Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.
It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama
and long narrative poems.
It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and
dramatic monologues — the poems in which a single
character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such
as iamb, trochee, spondee, and dactyl.
Is imagery a literary device? Absolutely! Imagery can be
both literal and figurative, and it relies on the interplay
of language and sensation to create a sharper image in
your brain.
Sight imagery: The tree spread its gigantic, sun-flecked
shoulders.
Sound imagery: The forest was hushed, resounding with
echoes of the tree’s stoic silence.
Touch imagery: The tree felt smooth as sandstone.
Taste imagery: The tree’s leaves tasted bitter, like
unroasted coffee beans.
Smell imagery: As we approached the tree, the air around
it smelled crisp and precise.