Hyperbole is an exaggeration technique used in literature for emphasis or humor. It is not meant to be taken literally and can create humorous imagery. Poets often use hyperbole to emphasize contrasts between ideas.
Hyperbole is a literary technique in which a certain piece of information, feeling or other statement is intentionally exaggerated for a certain effect. In most cases, the literal interpretation of a hyperbole may not be true, but the exaggeration is there to make a point. The statement “I have a million things I need to do today,” for example, is hyperbole: it means that the speaker has a lot to do, but it is unlikely that anyone actually needs to do a million tasks in a day . Hyperbole can also be used in literature sarcastically or for humor’s sake, although it is more commonly used for emphasis.
In prose, hyperbole is generally used for emphasis or for humor. A writer who wants to make a particular point may be making that point by overstating or exaggerating it. Hyperbole can be used in descriptions to emphasize some particularly important feature of a character, for example. It can also be used to describe an action that is remarkable in some way. In these and other similar cases, hyperbole is used to place emphasis on a particular action, feeling or characteristic and is not to be taken literally.
Often, hyperbole in literature is based on imagery that can be quite humorous. While the primary goal of any given use of hyperbole may simply be emphasis through exaggeration, a humorous image is, whether intentionally or unintentionally, often a secondary result. A man can be described as having “fingers like Italian sausages,” for example. While the purpose of this sentence may be to comment on the size of man’s fingers, it is based on the humorous image of a man with thick, stumpy, sausage-like fingers. Writers who use hyperbole, therefore, need to be mindful of the imagery they’re relying on, particularly if they don’t want to infuse their work with humor.
Poets also commonly use hyperbole. It is, as in prose, generally used for emphasis, but is far more likely to be used solely for humor or at least to make a certain point through the use of humour. Hyperbole can also be used to emphasize a contrast: if one idea is exaggerated while another is expressed normally or even understated, the result is an emphasis on the contrast between the two. This is particularly common in poetry that seeks to explore two or more opposing ideas.
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