The Only Use of
figure of speech
in
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
- They are, indeed, a figure of speech occasionally prompted by passion, and I have made use of them as such; but I have endeavoured utterly to reject them as a mechanical device of style, or as a family language which Writers in metre seem to lay claim to by prescription.†
Definition:
language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense; e.g., metaphors, similes, and hyperbole