Apostrophe occurs when a speaker directly addresses something or someone but the thing or person they are addressing is either not there or inanimate, meaning they are not able to respond. Sometimes the speaker asks the absent addressee a question, and other times the speaker simply speaks directly to it.

Often you will see apostrophe in literature start with the word “O” or “Oh.” For example, in William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 148 he writes,

O cunning love, with tears thou keepst me blind.

This is apostrophe because the speaker is addressing “love,” which is an abstract concept that cannot respond.

Apostrophe doesn't always start with “O” though. Another example of apostrophe in Shakespeare’s work is in Macbeth. Macbeth is going through emotional turmoil and visualizes a dagger before him. He addresses the dagger and says,

Come, let me clutch thee.

This is apostrophe because Macbeth is addressing an object that is both not there and inanimate.

Apostrophe is more common than you may think. For example, the following nursery rhyme also includes apostrophe:

Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

This is an apostrophe because the speaker is addressing a star, which is an inanimate object that cannot respond.

Another example is in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”:

O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

This is an example of apostrophe because the speaker is asking the wind a question, and the wind, of course, cannot understand or respond.

A final example is in Langston Hughes' poem “Theme for English B”:

Harlem, I hear you.

This is an example of apostrophe because Hughes is addressing the city of Harlem as a whole.