- Authors often use figurative language to heighten the reader's experience of the work and create a special effect or meaning in the mind of the audience, or to encourage further interpretation.
- The most commonly used types of figurative language are metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole. In each of those types of language, the author implicitly or explicitly compares something to something else. Local idioms are also a kind of figurative language. These are frequently referred to as "figures of speech."
-
Robert Burns compares his feelings to a flower.The poet Robert Burns wrote, "My love's like a red, red rose / That's newly sprung in June." In this couplet, he compares his love with a flower that is just beginning to blossom. Playwright William Shakespeare noted, "All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players." He compares the world with a dramatic scene, and everyone in it to actors. -
Aristotle was an early literary critic.The respected philosopher Aristotle claimed in his work, Poetics, "the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor." - Masters of figurative language can change an audience's experience of a word or an idea by comparing it with something else. They can also deepen the mood, tone and complexity of their work by choosing relevant, subtle comparisons.
