Literary Terms:

Definition: A word or a phrase used in a different way or manner from its usual meaning in order to creat a particular picture or effect. (Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary) Or It is a departure of ordinary form or meaning to creat a greater effect. We use figures of speech in "figurative language" to add colour and interest. It makes the reader/ listener
understand much more than the plain words. Figurative language is the opposite of literal language. Literal language means exactly what it is whereas Figurative language means something different. Read the following examples:
- He ran fast. (literal)
- He ran like the wind. (figurative)
we use figures of speech every day in our own writing and conversation.The fact is, whether we're conscious of it or not.The term, Figurative language, is associated with Literature and with poetry in particular. Let's discuss some of the important figures of speech:
(1) Personification: Personification in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.Or the representation of a thing or abstraction in the form of a person. Read the following exam:
1.The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.
2.The storm attacked the town with great rage.
3.The phone awakened with a mighty ring.(The highlighted words in the sentences have been personified.)

(2) Irony: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.
Example: In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged state and he thinks she is dead. He kills himself. When Juliet wakes up she finds Romeo dead and kills herself.
(3) Satire: A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
(4) Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that says that one thing is like another different thing. We can use similes to make descriptions more emphatic or vivid. We often use the words as...as and like with similes. Comparison of two same things isn't a simile.
Example: O my Love's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Love's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune or She is like a fairy. She's as pretty as a fairy.
(5) Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities.
Look at these examples: Her home was a prison. Noor Fatima is a rose. Look at this example:
All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances.
(6) Climax: A figure of speech in which a series of phrases or sentences is arranged in ascending and increasing order of importance. She is a great humorist, a mother and a writer.
(7) Anticlimax: Anticlimax refers to a figure of speech in which statements gradually descend in order of importance. He lost his family, his car and his cell phone.
(8) Antithesis: Contrast of words or sentiments is made in the same sentence.
For example: "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing."