"Thy growing virtues justify'd my cares, And promised comfort to my silver hairs."

Pope's Homer.

The silver hairs signify the old age of the speaker. An Hyperbole is a figure that goes beyond the bounds of strict truth, and represents things as greater or smaller, better or worse, than they really are.

Sir Walter Scott says of Ellen, in the Lady of the Lake: "E'en the light hare-bell lift its head

Elastic from her airy tread."

This is Hyperbole. Ellen was lively and light, but her foot-prints must have broken the tender herb. However, we understand this to be poetic license, and admire the delicate illustration of her slight form and ani. mated motion.

Irony is common to poetry and prose-it is an expression of one idea, when we would convey the idea of its opposite extreme: thus, in common conversation, in order to ridicule his choice, we say, when we think a friend has preferred an inferior to a better thing, "I admire your taste." In Scott's Rokeby two assassins are described watching their intended victims. One of them approaches a young man whom he fears, and when he discovers who he is, suddenly withdraws; upon this his companion laughs grimly, and says,

"A trusty mate art thou, to fear

A single arm, and aid so near.

This is Irony. An expressive example of irony may be found in the XVIII. Chapter of I. Kings. But the whole passage must be read, that the irony may be obvious.

The false prophets of Israel had taught the people the idolatries of Syria, but Elijah, the prophet of God, was instructed to convince them of their folly. In compliance with the request of Elijah, Ahab, king of Israel, called together an assembly of the people, and of the prophets of Baal, their idol, and Elijah proceeded to expose their crime in the manner thus described :

"So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.

:

"And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first: for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when mid-day was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded."

Interrogation is asking a question. When the interrogation is made in writing, or public speaking, and no reply is expected, it is used to induce the hearer to reflect with attention, and answer to his own reason, if the speaker's argument be not just and forcible.

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When Habakkuk, the Hebrew prophet, forewarns his countrymen of God's vindictive justice, that is, nishment of their sins, which had been revealed to him, and of which he speaks as if it were past, he says:

"Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?
Was thy wrath against the sea?"

The obvious anwer would be, No-God is not displeased with the rivers, nor angry against the sea; but he wounds the head of the wicked, and as a whirlwind, he scatters the nations that offend.

Exclamation is little more than a cry, a sudden, broken expression of surprise, pleasure, contempt, indignation, or pain. The Duke, in Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, relieving his melancholy with music, exclaims:

"That strain again! it had a dying fall!

Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour."

This example of exclamation from Shakspeare, expresses rapture--unexpected, lively delight. The next from Cicero expresses sorrow for his banishment, and pleasure at the idea of his honourable return to Rome:

"Oh mournful day to the senate and all good men! calamitous to the senate, afflictive to me and my family; but to posterity glorious, and worthy of admiration!" Pro Sext. chap. 12.

Thus the exclamation adapts itself to the passion which adopts it.

Climax is the enumeration of many particulars in one period or whole sense, intended to produce one effect of persuasion or conviction in the minds to which it is addressed. In climax or gradation the most important idea of the whole assemblage is the first mentioned. From the beginning to the end of the climax it is proper that each particular enumerated should rise in dignity of sense above the preceding.

Mr. Walker in his Rhetorical Grammar gives an example of Climax from the Spectator:

"Mr. Addison has a beautiful climax of circumstances arising one above another, when he is describing the treatment of Negroes in the West Indies, who sometimes, upon the death of their masters, or upon changing their service, hang themselves upon the next tree.

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'Who can forbear admiring their fidelity, though it expresses itself in so dreadful a manner? might not that savage greatness of soul, which appears in these poor wretches on many occasions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? and what colour of excuse can there be for the contempt with which we treat this part of our species? That we should not put them upon the common foot of humanity; that we should only set an insignificant fine upon the man who murders them, nay, that we should, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the prospects of happiness in another world as well as in this, and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it?" "

Here Mr. Addison first mentions the virtues of the poor negroes, and then contrasts the cruel treatment of white men with their deserts. This cruel treatment in fact is this: We-Mr. Addison meant the Europeans, but his remarks apply to some Americans of the present age-We, says he in effect, deny them to possess the understandings of men; we consider them brute animals; we do not punish their murderers; and we not only deprive them of liberty and the sympathies that exist between man and man in this world, but we refuse to consider them as immortal beings, and withhold from them the knowledge necessary to their salvation. It is very plain that the last articles of this passage-the immortal soul, and its final happiness in heaven-are considerations of greater magnitude, in regard to the negro character, the abuse it has suffered, and the redress that the author here claims for it, than any he had previously detailed.

This example is not taken from poetry, but Climax is a figure which often occurs in poetry. Anticlimax is often used as a word to denote a foolish representation of things, which exaggerates the unimportant, and gives the least regard to the more important particulars under consideration.

Apostrophe is an abrupt address to the absent. It sometimes partakes of the character of personification : as St. Paul, in holy rapture, exclaims,

"Oh Grave! where is thy victory? Oh Death! where is thy sting?"

"This figure," says Walker, "is seldom used; but when, in a violent commotion, the speaker turns himself on all sides, and appeals to the living and the dead, to angels and to men, to rocks, groves, and rivers, for the justice of his cause, or calls upon them to sympathize with his joy, grief, or resentment."

The Minstrel, in Scott's Lay, breaks out, at the thought of his beloved country, into this apostrophe :

"O Caledonia, stern and wild,

Meet nurse for a poetic child!

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band

That knits me to thy rugged strand!"

Personification is the investing of qualities, or things inanimate, with the character of persons, or the introducing of dead or absent persons as if they were alive and present. This is at once one of the boldest and finest figures in rhetoric. Poets are prodigal in their use of this figure.

The following example of the figure of personification is from Milton's Comus. The poet personifies Virtue, Wisdom, and Contemplation :