Senior High School

21 century literature from

st

the Philippines and the world

Learning
COMPETENC
Y
1
Analyze the figures of speech
and other literary techniques
and devices in the text.
EN12Lit-Ie-27
POEM ANALYSIS
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN BY
ROBERT FROST
 POEM
DIRECTIONS: ANALYSIS
1. The class will be divided into five (5) groups.
2. Each group will read and analyze the poem.
3. Each group has their assigned questions to answer.
4. The teacher will randomly pick a presenter from the
members of the group.
 POEM
QUESTIONS: ANALYSIS
Group 1. What can you say about the persona of the poem? How did he
feel as he chose the road less traveled?
Group 2. What do you notice about the language of the poem? Is it
complex? Comment on Frost’s phrasing.
Group 3. As a whole, what did Frost mean by “the road being less taken”?
Group 4. What is the figurative language in "The Road Not Taken"?
Group 5. What is the meaning of the final stanza in "The Road Not
Taken"?
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
ANALYZING LITERARY TEXT
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
In common usage, a figure of speech is a
word or phrase that means something more
or something other than it seems to say—the
opposite of a literal expression.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
The following are the most commonly used
figures of speech which aid writers in
developing mental images.
 FIGURES OF
1. Simile- used for theSPEECH
comparison of two
essentially unlike things, often in
phrase. It introduced by like or as.
Examples:
He was panting like a dog in a midday sun.
My love for you is as deep as the ocean.
 FIGURES OF
2. Metaphor- use ofSPEECH
word or phrase that
ordinarily designates one thing as that another,
thus making an implicit and direct comparison.
Examples:
He was an exhausted dog under the midday sun.
My life became a sea of troubles the day I met
you.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
3. Personification- endows human
qualities/emotions to inanimate objects or abstract
ideas. These are often represented as possessing
human form.
Examples:
The cloud wept for three hours.
Flowers danced about the lawn, swaying with the wind.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
4. Apostrophe- directly addressing an
absent/imaginary person or a personified abstraction, as
a living entity. It is used as a digression in the course of
a speech or a composition.
Examples:
Clouds, please stop crying. The people are drowning.
Oh, my God!
Fate, why have you been so cruel to me?
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
5. Onomatopoeia- is known as “sound word.” It
employs the use of words that imitate the sounds
associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Examples:
The fighter jet whooshed by the excited crowd before doing
a corkscrew spin.
The splashing of the water indicated that there were fish in
the pond.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
6. Hyperbole- commonly known as extreme
exaggeration. It is often used to give extreme emphasis or to
show extreme effect to a statement. However, these
statements are often greatly exaggerated that they are almost
impossible to be true.
Examples:
I could sleep for a year.
I have cried a bucket of tears for the boy who broke my
heart.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
7. Synecdoche- uses a part to represent the whole. Present
when a particular idea is expressed through the following
ways:

a. A part is used for the whole (as hand for a bride)

Example: He asked her hand for a marriage.

b. The whole is used for a part (as the law for police officer)
Example: The law brought the thief into prison.
 FIGURES OF
Example: Keep away from thatSPEECH
c. The specific is used for the general (as cutthroat for assassin)
cutthroat.
d. The general is used for the specific (as thief for pickpocket)
Example: He might think you're a sneak thief and shoot you
with that big gun he carries.
e. The material is used for the thing made from it (as steel for
sword)
Example: The wondrous work of steel was offered to the
prince.
 FIGURES OF
8. Metonymy- replaces one SPEECH
word or phrase for another,
usually as a symbol with which it is closely associated.
Examples: The venue will charge us by the plate.
Symbol Meaning Sentence
peace Let the white doves fly.
white dove Let there be peace.
The team brought home the laurel
laurel leaves championship leaves.
The team was declared as champion.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
9. Oxymoron- uses contradictory terms which are
combined to make meaning. To be able to understand a
passage that employs this figure of speech, the entire
statement must be read.
Examples:
There was a deafening silence in the room when he
entered.
He was indeed a mournful optimist.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
10. Irony- is an expression which is the opposite of
what is meant.
Example:
A person who hates macaroni, yet says “I really love
macaroni,” is expressing an example of irony.
.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
Example: Bill Gates winning a computer
Situational Irony (He is the owner of the world's largest software
company.)
Example: Having a fight with your best friend just before your birthday,
and commenting -"Great, this is just what I needed".
Verbal Irony (It is probably the worst thing that could happen before your
birthday.)
Example: In Romeo and Juliet, when Juliet is drugged, Romeo assumes
her to be dead, and kills himself. Upon waking up Juliet finds him dead,
and kills herself.
Dramatic Irony (Mainly based on miscommunication and
misunderstanding.)
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
12. Antithesis- contradiction that pits two ideas
against each other in a balanced way.
Examples:
Neil Armstrong said when he stepped on the moon, “This is
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
United we stand, divided we fall.
To err is human, to forgive is divine.
We look for light, but all is darkness.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
13. Anaphora- a repetition of one particular word
purposely, at the start of consecutive sentences or paragraphs.
This is again in order to emphasize a point.
Examples:
I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to live. I'm not
afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to
fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might
have to stop talking about myself for five minutes.
From Kinky Friedman, When the Cat's Away
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
14. Antonomasia- substitution of a proper name with a
phrase, which then becomes a way of recognition for the
person in question.
Examples:
The King of Pop - Michael Jackson
The Bard - William Shakespeare
 FIGURES OF
15. Euphemism- use ofSPEECH
neutral language to remark
something that may be offensive to the receiver. Euphemism
is often used by people who are diplomatic, and who wish to
be politically correct.
Examples:
We have to let you go. Read: You're fired.
You're well fed. Read: You're fat.
 FIGURES OF
SPEECH
16. Idiom- figure of speech that is used to help express a
situation with ease, but by using expressions that are usually
completely unrelated to the situation in question.
Examples:
It's no good crying over spilt milk.
- This is an idiom that simply means there is no use regretting about
unfortunate events that have passed and cannot be changed.

It takes two to tango.

- This idiom simply means that it takes more than one person to mess up a
situation, i.e. it is not only always one person's fault.
 FIGURES OF
17. Litotes- This figure ofSPEECH
speech refers to the use of
understatement, to affirm a particular situation or event with
the use of a negative opposite.
Examples:

He was not unfamiliar with the work of Shakespeare.

Einstein is not a bad mathematician.
 SOUND
DEVICES
Sound devices help a lot in
adding flavor to literary
compositions especially in
poems.
 SOUND
1.
DEVICES
Rhyming Words- add beauty to a poem
Example:
.
Forward, the light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply.
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Road to the six hundred.
From the Charge of the light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
 SOUND
1.
DEVICES
Rhyming Words- adds rhythm to the lines of the poem.
Example:
It was many and many a year ago
In a kingdom by the sea.
…
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and loved by me.
From the “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
 SOUND
DEVICES
2. Alliteration- repetition of the same sounds or of the same
kinds of sounds at the beginning of words in stressed
syllables.
Examples:
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I’m not cute or built a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them
They think I’m telling lies
From the “Phenomenal Women” by Maya Angelou
 SOUND
DEVICES
3. Assonance- repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong
which are near enough to each other for the sound to be
describable.
Examples:
How do I love thee? Let me count on the ways
I love thee to the depth and breadth of height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
From the “How do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 LET’S TRY THIS!
DIRECTIONS: Identify what figures of speech used in
the following sentences.
1. Well, that went over like a lead balloon.
2. I am so busy. I have a million things to do.
3. He did not realize his last chance was walking out the door.
4. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
5. The silence was deafening in the waiting room.