Figurative Language is speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning, speech or writing employing figures of speech. These include: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, understatement, paradox, oxymoron, pun, irony, sarcasm, antithesis, apostrophe, allusion, synecdoche.

Simile is a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words like or as. It is definitely a stated comparison, where the poet says one thing is like another e.g., The warrior fought like a lion.

Metaphor is a comparison without the use of like or as. The poet states that one thing another. It is usually a comparison between something that is real or concrete and something that is abstract, e.g., Life is but a dream.

Personification is a kind of metaphor which gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics, e.g., The wind cried in the dark.

Hyperbole is a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used either for serious or comic effect, e.g., The shot that was heard 'round the world.

Understatement (Meiosis) is the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony which deliberately represents something as much less than it really is, e.g., I could probably manage to survive on a salary of two million dollars per year.

Paradox is a statement which contradicts itself. It may seem almost absurd. Although it may seem to be at odds with ordinary experience, it usually turns out to have a coherent meaning, and reveals a truth which is normally hidden, e.g., The more you know, the more you know you don't know. (Socrates)

Oxymoron is a form of paradox which combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness, e.g., sweet sorrow, wooden nickel.

Pun is a play on words which are identical or similar in sound but which have sharply diverse meanings. Puns may have serious as well as humorous uses, e.g., When Mercutio is bleeding to death in Romeo and Juliet. he says to his friends, "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. "

Irony is the result of a statement saying one thing while meaning the opposite. Its purpose is usually to criticize, e.g., It is simple to stop smoking. I've done it many times.

Sarcasm is a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something while he is actually insulting the thing. Its purpose is t6 injure or hurt, e.g., As I fell down the stairs head-first, I heard her say, "Look at that coordination. "

Antithesis involves a direct contrast of structurally parallel word groupings generally for the purpose of contrast, e.g., sink or swim.

Apostrophe is a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present, and the inanimate as if animate. Those are all addressed directly, e.g., The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.