Poets may apostrophize a beloved, the Muse, God, love, time, or any other entity that can't respond in reality.

The definition of apostrophe as a ", "Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium! The word \"apostrophe,\" which comes from ancient Greek, literally means \"turning away,\" because to perform apostrophe on stage, an actor turns away from the scene to address an absent entity.

Sometimes, exclamation used in it. This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die. 2. ", In Edgar Allen Poe's works, he distinctly speaks to a raven sitting "upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door as if it could understand him in the poem of the same name, and in the poem "To One in Paradise," he starts out addressing his love (absent from the scene) thus: "Thou wast all that to me, love. Often the addressee is a personified abstract quality or inanimate object.

That ever lived in the tide of times." Even as early as Grecian times when Homer wrote "The Odyssey," apostrophes were used as literary devices to break from addressing the primary audience to instead speak to a third party, with the relatively impersonal narrator occasionally butting in to break the third wall and inform the audience members of some plot device they may have missed.

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, https://www.britannica.com/art/apostrophe-figure-of-speech, Washington State University - Apostrophes. Also, you can quite easily identify this figure of speech as it is often found in combination with the exclamation "O". The Star (By Jane Taylor) Jane Taylor uses apostrophe in the well-known poem, The Star: “Twinkle, … Also known as a turne tale, aversio, and aversion, apostrophes are more often found in poetry than in prose. Come, let me clutch thee! The figure of speech serves a vital function in everyone from Mary Shelley's works ( "Scoffing devil! Queen Isabel in, This page was last edited on 1 October 2020, at 16:04. "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, Updates? Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. More commonly known as a punctuation mark, apostrophe can also refer to an exclamatory figure of speech. ", "Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Apostrophe, a rhetorical device by which a speaker turns from the audience as a whole to address a single person or thing. In the movie "Cast Away," to keep from losing his mind, the character Chuck Noland, played by Tom Hanks, talks to a volleyball, Wilson. Next time you're watching your favorite television show, take a moment to see if you can spot any clever usage of apostrophes from the characters—you might be shocked at how often this figure of speech is utilized to help actors convey their messages to audiences. Literary Definition and Examples, Brief Introductions to Common Figures of Speech, 20th Century American Speeches as Literary Texts, Figures of Speech: Definition and Examples, Questions Stems Used to Teach Famous Speeches Gr 7-12: PART II, 'The Odyssey' Themes and Literary Devices, 8 Steps to Teach a Famous Speech Gr 7-12: PART I, Lyric Poetry: Expressing Emotion Through Verse, Biography of Pablo Neruda, Chilean Poet and Diplomat, Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia, M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester, B.A., English, State University of New York.

Fortunately, it doesn't talk back.

", "O happy dagger! Here’s a quick and simple definition:Some additional key details about apostrophe: 1. While the regular apostrophe you knew is a punctuation mark, the one that we are discussing now is a figure of speech, an arrangement of words. As a form of direct address to an inanimate object, apostrophe serves to further poetic imagery and often emphasizes the emotional weight of objects in our everyday world. Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. [2] It occurs when a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g. It is always better to go through some examples to get rid of any confusion. Apostrophe happens in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" as the narrator starts out speaking to an absent "thee": "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Figures of Speech: The Apostrophe as a Literary Device. Although most commonly used in spoken rhetoric, apostrophes can also come into play in written forms; such is the case in a famous example of a cigarette advertisement firm addressing young audiences in its ad—who couldn't buy the product—to appeal to older audiences who long to re-experience the proverbial "youth" the cigarette marketer was trying to sell. in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes absent from the scene. Apostrophe (etymologically derived from the Greek word apostrophein, literally meaning “to turn away”), is a rhetorical device which consists when an orator interrupts the flow of the discourse; turning his attention from his immediate audience, to address some person or other objects different from that to which the discourse was at first directed.