Choose the correct figure of speech used in the following sentence:
Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with tears.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Hyperbole
Hyperbole means deliberate exaggeration for emphasis, not meant to be taken literally. The line is spoken by Launce in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 2, Scene 3). No one can fill a dry river with tears; the impossible claim stresses how much he is weeping.
Example: I have told you a million times to shut the door.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Epigram — Incorrect. An epigram is a short, witty saying that puts a truth in a surprising way; the line is an overstatement of grief, not a witty truth.
Example: I can resist everything except temptation.
Option 3: Personification — Incorrect. Personification gives human qualities to non-human things; nothing non-human acts like a person here.
Example: The wind whispered through the trees.
Option 4: Apostrophe — Incorrect. Apostrophe is a direct address to an absent person, an idea or an object; "man" is a person present in the conversation, so this is ordinary speech.
Example: O Death, where is thy sting?
Contrast: hyperbole overstates for effect; an epigram states a truth briefly and wittily.