Antithesis, Oxymoron, Epigram and Irony English Poetry Grammar Lesson 2
Figures of Speech may be classified as under Antithesis, Oxymoron, Epigram, and Irony
5- Antithesis: In antithesis, a striking opposition or contrast of words or sentiments is made in the same sentence. It is employed to secure emphasis.
Examples Of Antithesis:
(i) Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
(ii) Speech is silver, but silence is golden.
(iii) To err is human, to forgive divine.
(iv) Man proposes, God disposes.
6- Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a special form of Antithesis, whereby two contradictory qualities are predicted at once of the same thing.
Examples Of Oxymoron:
(i). He accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeon’s knife.
(ii) His honor rooted in dishonor stood. And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
(iii)So innocent arch, so cunningly simple.
7- Epigram: An Epigram is a brief pointed saying frequently introducing antithetical ideas that excite surprise and arrest attention.
Examples Of Epigram:
(i) Art lies in concealing art,
(ii) He makes no friend, who never made a foe.
(iii)The child is the father of the man.
(iv) A woman can’t be too careful in the choice of his close enemies.
(v) Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
(vi) In the midst of life, we are in death.
8- Irony: Irony is a speech mode in which the real meaning is exactly the opposite of that which is literally conveyed.
Examples Of Irony:
(i) The atrocious crime of being a young woman, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me. I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny.
(ii)No doubt, but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
