Figures of Speech

Question: What Is the Value of the Figures of Speech?

Metaphor and metonymy, irony and hyperbole, chiasmus and antithesis--learning all the funny names of the figures of speech can be a real challenge. Learning how to recognize the figures in our reading and apply them in our writing can be even harder. So why should we even bother?
Figures of speech are of such importance that they must always occupy a prominent place in every treatise on style or criticism.

1. They contribute beyond anything else to the embellishment of style. Some create a picture before the mind; others gratify the sense of proportion; others adorn the subject by contrasting it with some other which is like or unlike; and thus in various ways they appeal to the aesthetical sensibilities.
2. They are used to illustrate a subject, which thus gains a clearness that could be given in no other way.
3. They add to the persuasiveness of style. They give variety to it, by enabling the author to change his form of expression at will.
4. In the whole world of literature, both ancient and modern, figures of speech occupy a foremost place. 

            1. Simile: Resemblance, an explicit comparison (using “like” or “as”) between two thing

 of unlike nature that yet have something in common (see Bullinger, pp. 726‑733). 

“Silence settled on the audience like a block of granite.”

“All flesh is like grass.” (1 Pet. 1:24)

“He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of waters.”  (Ps. 1:3)

         2. Metaphor: Representation, an implicit comparison between two things of

unlike nature that yet have something in common; a declaration that one thing is or represents another

“The question of federal aid to education is a bramble patch.”

“The LORD God is a sun and a shield.”

“The LORD is my shepherd.”

3. Personification: he investiment of non-human subjects (e.g., abstractions, inanimate objects, or animals) with human qualities or abilities. 

“The land mourns‑‑the oil languishes.”  (Joel 1:10)

“The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.”  (Gen. 4:6)

“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”  (Ps. 23:4)

4. Metonymy:  Change of Noun (or any idea), the change of a word naming an object for another word closely associated with it. 

            “You split the fountain and the flood.” (Ps. 74:15)
            “Awake, my glory”  (Ps. 57:9[8])

5.      Euphemism:  the substitution of an inoffensive or mild expression for an offensive one

6.      Apostrophe:  a turning aside from the direct subject‑matter to address another who may be present in fact or in imagination

“Your glory, O Israel, is slain upon your high places . . . .  You mountains of Gilboa . . .” (2 Sam. 1: 19‑21)

“When Israel went forth out of Egypt . . . What ails you, O sea, that you flee?”   (Ps. 114:1‑5)

7.      Irony: the expression of thought in a form that conveys its opposite

“Cry louder, for he is a god.”  (1 Kings 18:27)

8.      Hyperbole: the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of  emphasis or heightened effect; more is said than is literally meant

The cities are great, and walled up to heaven.”

*Reference: thanks to christianleadershipcenter.org

             more examples at buzzle.com