Onomatopoeia

=Onomatopoeia=


 * Definition**: a word that uses its sound or pronunciation as its meaning.

Examples:
"Out, Out--" The buzz-saw __snarled__ and __rattled__ in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
 * Robert Frost**


 * Effect**: "Snarled" and "rattled" breathe life into the buzz-saw, because the onomatopoeic essence of those two words provide auditory imagery, making it possible to visualize, or at least have a sense of, the scene unfolding.

__Hamlet__ For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have __shuffled__ off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life.
 * Shakespeare**
 * Hamlet**
 * Effect**: Here, "shuffled off" means to literally to thrust aside, or get rid of; adding in the sound of the word "shuffled", one can also picture the chains of life ("mortal coil") scraping together as the prisoner of these chains tries to take off the chains by moving them this way and that, as these are all definitions of the word "shuffle". The auditory imagery the word "shuffle" provides helps to give a mental picture of an actual person, perhaps Hamlet himself, trying to rid himself of life's metaphorical chains.

Page by: Stacey Lu