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Language can be conveniently classified as either literal or figurative. When we speak literally we mean exactly what each word conveys. When we use figurative language we mean something other than the actual meanings of the words in a superliteral sense. These are rhetorical devices used by poets in order to evoke imagery. Rhetoricians have catalogued more than two hundred fifty figures of speech which include the following: Simile is a comparison of two persons or things which are unlike in most respects. It uses like or as to signal the comparison. Metaphor is an implied comparison between two persons or things which are unlike in most respects, but does not use like or as. Personification is the transfer of human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract qualities. Metonymy is the use of one word for another which suggests it. Synecdoche is the use of a part to suggest the whole. Hyperbole is a statement greatly exaggerated for an aesthetic purpose. Alliteration is the repetition of an initial letter or sound. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within the words. Onomatopoeia is the blending of sounds of words with their senses. Litotes affirms something by denying its opposite. Apostrophe is addressing absent persons or ideas directly as if they were present. Antithesis is a studied contrast of ideas. Parable is an extended or elaborate simile. Allusion is a reference to something outside the poem in history, mythology or another literary work which has built-in emotional association. Meiosis or understatement consciously underrating something or portraying it as lesser that it is usually thought to be. Irony is a means of expressing which suggests humorously or angrily a different meaning of the words used. Oxymoron is a combination of contrasts to show a particular image with a striking effect. Periphrases or circumlocution is the deliberate avoidance of the obvious. It circles its subject and refuses to go straight to the point. Hyperbaton is the rearrangement of sentence elements for special effects. Prolepsis is the foreshadowing of a future event as if it were already influencing the present.