Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash
Continuing the exercises related to figurative language, today’s challenge is Personification and Oxymoron.
Oxymoron is one of my favorite because of the language play. English provides a rich history waiting to be mined for contrasting words. Dodge Ram. Fine mess. Original copy. Civil war. Oxymorons combine contradictory words.
Personification involves giving human qualities to inanimate objects or an abstract quality. Disney does it all the time: dancing tea kettles and wooden puppets are just two examples by them. In writing, attribution of the human qualities is usually verbed. The wind howled and the lightning danced. The table groaned under the Thanksgiving feast.
WRITING EXERCISE: Write a three-to-five sentence paragraph using personifications at least three times; write another three-to-five sentence paragraph using oxymorons at least three times.
My attempt
Do guitars regret never being played by Santana? Never singing under his fingers? I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it is for the instruments to know the master is out there and never being strummed by him.
Acting naturally, I snuck in the party in plain view. It was a calculated risk as my ex had been thinking of attending. Between the conversations and the music, the dull roar kept my gasp from being heard when I spotted my personal sweet misery.
Writing Exercise Series of Figurative Language
Metaphor and Simile (6/22/21)
Synecdoche and Symbolism (7/27/21)
Personification and Oxymoron (8/24/21)
Understatement, Sarcasm, & Litotes (9/28/2021)
Series inspired by: “Figurative Language: Why and How You Should Use it” by Zara Altair. ProWritingAid 6/11/201