—Elizabeth Akers Allen.
+92. Metonymy.+—Metonymy consists in substituting one object for another, the two being so closely associated that the mention of one suggests the other.
1. The pupils are reading George Eliot. 2. Each hamlet heard the call. 3. Strike for your altars and your fires. 4. Gray hairs should be respected.
+93. Synecdoche.+—Synecdoche consists in substituting a part of anything for the whole or a whole for the part.
1. A babe, two summers old.
2. Give us this day our daily bread.
3. Ring out the thousand years of woe,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
4. Fifty mast are on the ocean.
+94. Other Figures of Speech.+—Sometimes, especially in older rhetorics, the following so-called figures of speech are added to the list already given: irony, hyperbole, antithesis, climax, and interrogation. The two former pertain rather to style, in fact, are qualities of style, while the last two might properly be placed along with kinds of sentences or paragraph development. Since these so-called figures are not all mentioned elsewhere in this text, a brief explanation and example of each will be given here.
1. Irony consists in saying just the opposite of the intended meaning, but in such a way that it emphasizes that meaning.
What has the gray-haired prisoner done?
Has murder stained his hands with gore?
Not so; his crime is a fouler one—
God made the old man poor.
—Whittier.
2. Hyperbole is an exaggerated expression used to increase the effectiveness of a statement.