the Hudson . . . " The wordbosom's denotation is that of a woman's chest. In further describing the mysterious and supernatural atmosphere of Sleepy Hollow, the narrator states that "the nightmare . . . seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols." Nightmares are personified as female.

Personification: giving "person-like" living qualities to inanimate objects.

"as if on the wings of the wind" is personfication (This is toward the beginning of the story when the author is describing the bewitching aura of the town).  This one, too:  "And how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling among the trees..." is personification.

Simile:  a comparison made between two things using "like" or "as"

Icabod had "a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck" is a simile.

Hyperbole:  an extreme exaggeration of some sort

One example is "It's raining cats and dogs."

An example from the story would be this description of Icabod Crane:

 "To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield."

Good Luck!

Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a delightful story because of the comic ability and clever satire of its author, Washington Irving. The names of the characters in this narrative are certainly humorous:  Ichabod and Brom Bones, Old Baltus Van Tassel, Hans Van Ripper, etc. The huge daughter of Van Tassel is humorously referred to as "the peerless daughter."

In addition, Irving employs figurative language. For instance, in describing Brom Bones, Irving writes,

This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the blooming Katrina for the object of hisuncouth gallantries,[metaphor] and though his amorous toyings [metaphor for his attempts] were something like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear,[simile]...

Certain it is, his advances were signals for rivalcandidates [metaphor] to retire, who felt no inclination to cross a lion in his amours...[metaphor]

There are many more metaphors and similes in this comical history.  For example, when Ichabod is frightened he is "appalled by some shrub covered with snow, which, like asheeted spectre, [simile] beset his very path!"  When Ichabod enters Katrina's house "the conquest of his heart was complete" [figurative language].

In discussing how "women's hearts are wooed and won," Irving writes,

It is a great triumph of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to maintain possession of the latter, for the man must battle for his fortress [metaphor] at every door and window.  He who wins a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, is indeed a hero.

Ichabod Crane would be such a hero as he borrows a horse from a farmer and mounts it, "issued forth, like a knight-errant in quest of adventures [simile].  It is here that Irving's satiric humor also takes hold as Crane, an "unskillful rider," is compared to one of the knights-errant in King Arthur's tales who rides to the "castle of the Heer Van Tassel."

In addition to his humor, Washington Irving is renowned for his creative imagery.  His descriptions of the fields that Crane passes, taking note of the fruit, contain many sensory words:

vast stores of apples; some hanging in oppressive opulence on the trees;...great fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears peeping from their leafy coverts, ...fragrant buckwheat fields, breathing the odor of the bee-hive, ...

One paragraph replete with imagery is as follows:

The small birds were taking their farewell banquets.  In the fullness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping, and frolicking, from bush to bush...capricious from the very profusion and variety around them.  There was the honest cock-robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying in sable coulds; and the golden-tipt tail, and its little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that noisy coxcomb, in his gay light-blue coat and white underclothes; screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every sonster of the grove.

There are several examples of onomatopoeia in the story. As far as a page number, I do not think we have the same texts, but an example would be, ". . . how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling among the trees." Remember that an onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it is.

A metaphor that appears directly following the above quote is, "All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness."The metaphor is a comparison between two things without the use of "like" or "as". This metaphor is comparing the terrors he discussed previously to "phantoms that walk in darkness".

There are many examples of allusions found in the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Here are a few examples:

• References to the American Revolutionary War, including the battle of White Plains.
• Cotton Mather's History of New England Witchcraft figures prominently.
• The Dutch old country is mentioned; an example is the town of Saardam.
• Irving refers to the Russian "Don Cossacks."
• There is a reference to "the cap of Mercury."
• There is a comparison to the "knight-errant" of medieval times.
• The patron of dance, St. Vitus, is referenced.
• The British spy, Major Andre, who was hanged in the area, is mentioned several times.

Metaphorical language--comprising most commonly metaphor and simile--allows a writer to identify one thing with another in order to show how the first thing mentioned is similar to the second thing.  For example, a football player might be described as "a lion" on the field or as having played "like a lion in today's game." In the first example, the writer is using a metaphor to compare the player to a lion and, in the second, a simile, which is a comparison using the words "like" or "as."  In both cases, the writer is comparing the football to a powerful animal in the hope of evoking an image (the power of a lion) that helps the reader understand the power of the football player.

In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," as Irving is describing the sounds coming from the schoolhouse, he notes

From hence the low murmur of his pupil's voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard of a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive. . . .

This example of metaphorical language--because it uses the word "like" to make the comparison--is a simile, and the value of such language is that it both adds texture to the description and insures that the reader "hears" the sound because most readers would have been familiar with the sound of a bee hive.

A few lines later, Irving describes Ichabod Crane, as the schoolmaster and disciplinarian:

I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one of those cruel potentates of the school, who joy in the smart of their subjects. . . .

Here, Irving is comparing Crane, in the negative, to a potentate, a ruler with absolute and arbitrary power over his subjects.  This is a particularly effective use of metaphorical language because Irving's readers, for whom the American Revolution was a living memory, would be repelled by the image of a cruel potentate.  Although Crane has many faults, being like a cruel potentate is not one of them.  

Metaphorical language, then, compares two dissimilar things in order to show how the first person, object, or action resembles the second thing (or is unlike the second thing), and the result is often an image that the reader can understand more clearly because the reader understands, based on his or her experience, how those two things are alike.

The narrator of this text describes the legend of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow and the awareness of the legend that everyone who lives there, even temporarily, seems to breathe in with the air and imbibe with the water. It is not only those native residents who have lived in Sleepy Hollow for their whole lives who become more imaginative, but all who reside there begin to see apparitions. However, he says,

I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud; for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys . . . that population, manners, and customs, remain fixed; while the great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water which border a rapid stream; where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their mimic harbour, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. (emphasis mine)

Remember that a simile is a comparison of two unalike things using the word like or as. Here, the narrator compares the peaceful little Dutch valleys of New York state to small eddies of water which the currents leave undisturbed as they rush by. The "currents" of migration and advancement seem not to disturb the life in these lovely hamlets. Rather than seem stagnant, however, their fixedness seems only to make them more quaint and provincial.

When describing the odd-looking school master, Ichabod Crane, the narrator says, in part,

His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snip nose, so that it looked like a weathercock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. (emphasis mine)

He compares Ichabod's unusually formed head and large features to a weathervane which takes the form of a rooster. This is hardly a compliment of the gangly, loose-limbed, shovel-footed man.

Let us remember that similes are a form of a figurative device that compares one object or character to something that we would not normally associate it with using the words "like" or "as." Consider, for example, how the sounds emerging from Ichabod Crane's schoolhouse are described:

From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive...

Note how the simile is used to compare the sounds of the students to the sounds of bees in their beehive.

You also might like to consider how Karina Van Tassel is introduced and described when we first meet her in this excellent short story. She is said to be "plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father's peaches..." Clearly, both of these similes serve to convey her delectable nature and how she would have presented herself as a tempting morsel to the eyes of Ichabod Crane. The use of similes in this instance is therefore used to help explore how Katrina would have attracted the famished Ichabod Crane through her resemblance to rich food.

The narrator mentions that the town of Sleepy Hollow is quiet and it seems to be isolated, not affected by the developments in the rest of the country. It paints a picture of Sleepy Hollow as a town by itself, almost as if it is in another world. This helps to establish its own culture and the narrator adds that the town's inhabitants are superstitious: 

The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions: stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 

Ichabod himself is interested in the supernatural. Being a well read man, he knew Cotton Mather's "history of New England Witchcraft" well. The narrator adds that Ichabod's stay in Sleepy Hollow increased his interest in the supernatural: 

His appetite for the marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased by his residence in this spellbound region. 

This reference to Cotton Mather and allusion to the history of New England Witchcraft is especially fitting for this tale of a supernatural Headless Horseman. Mather became involved in the Salem Witch Trials. He believed in witches and the visions that led to accusations of witchcraft. This allusion to Mather and his interest in witches adds to the supernatural theme of the story. However, whereas Mather was an authorial accuser, Ichabod was a naive believer, a romanticist. This is one of the reasons people like him; he was interested in the "marvelous." 

Washington Irving makes good use of juxtaposition, or the placement of two dissimilar things (people, traits, objects, events, etc.) side by side to emphasize their differences, in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Let's look at a couple examples to get you started.

First, we should think about the juxtaposition of Ichabod Crane and Brom Van Brunt. These two could not be more different, and the effect of them side by side is actually quite comical. Ichabod is the intellectual schoolteacher who is not very well-endowed physically. He is quite a good man, though, and he really tries to help his students even though he does have an eye for the town's young ladies. Ichabod tries to hold his own against Brom, but his fear of the supernatural conquers him in the end. Brom, on the other hand, is a burly fellow. He is something of a mischief maker, and while he is not intellectual, he is clever, and the story leads us to believe that he is behind the incident of the headless horseman.

Irving also juxtaposes the motives of Ichabod and Brom toward the lovely Katrina. Ichabod seems to be more interested in her family's money than anything else, and if that is true, it does mar his character somewhat. Brom, though, really seems to care for Katrina in a way Ichabod does not.

There is a distinct juxtaposition between the party at the Van Tassel home with all its music and dancing and good food and what happens later in the tale as Ichabod leaves the party. He has already heard plenty of ghost stories during the party, and now the atmosphere is spooky. Then the ghost seems to come right out of those old stories to chase Ichabod. No one ever sees Ichabod again.