I can’t remember if it was in middle school (we called it Junior High way back then), or high school when we were introduced to the idea of “figures of speech.” Thinking about this recently, it seemed like it was a list of 10 or something like that. Apparently the adults simplified things trying to not stress us with TMI. I searched for the list and got back options for a list of 8, 10, 12, 18, 20, 50.

Remembering the difference between Simile and Metaphor took a little practice; I’ve come to see some photographs as Metaphors. Hyperbole was cool; you could tell your parents your sibling was being “hyperbolic.” Onomatopoeia got special attention because of the odd spelling, and the easy illustration, “Buzzing like a bee,” which is also Simile and Alliteration, but we were not encouraged to think about this multi-dimensionally, as I recall.

In the several years I’ve been doing this blog I’ve discovered I have a natural affinity for Alliteration, to the point where I police my use in an effort to not over do. A college writing instructor gave me Oxymoron, which turns out to be a lot more useful than I would have expected.

But it was becoming a newspaper photographer/street photographer, and beginning to pay attention to the ordinary, everyday things around me, that taught me about Irony.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index