Stealing and giving odour! (I.i.5-7)

Shakespeare is using the phrase "sweet sound" to actually refer to a breeze. Since a gentle breeze can make a soft, sweet sound as it blows through grass and trees, in this simile he is describing a gentle breeze blowing over violets, making their scent apparent and also diverting their scent. More specifically, he is likening the strain of music he just heard to this gentle breeze blowing over violets. Since he uses the word "like" in line 5, we know he is comparing the music to the breeze to give the music more description, and since the music is not also literally a breeze, we also know this is a type of figurative language.

A second literary device we can find in this same speech is another form of figurative language called apostrophe. Apostrophe is a type of personification, and personification happens when we give inanimate objects, animals, or even abstract ideas human traits. The difference is that with apostrophe, we are actually addressing the abstract idea as if it was not only human but physically present. Dr. Wheeler gives us the example of, "Oh, Death, be not proud" ("Literary Terms and Definitions"). In Orsino's same opening speech in Act 1, Scene 1, we see apostrophe in the line, "O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou" (9). Here, Orsino is addressing love as if it is actually present in human form and asking love why it is so "quick and fresh," meaning restless.

Duke Orsino is in love, and in a big way. Olivia, the object of his love, is not interested. He wishes that, if his love cannot be requited, he might somehow be cured. As lovers tend to do, he waxes poetic about his plight. At first he talks to the musicians, and then to Love. Figurative language abounds to convey this and related messages.

There are metaphors (direct comparison) such as: love is food.

There is an example of simile, a comparison with like or as, and synesthesia, mixing or substitution of one sense for another, when he compares music to the smell of violets:

it [the music] came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,/That breathes upon a bank of violets, /Stealing and giving odour!

Apostrophe, direct address to a person, animal, thing or idea: "O spirit of love!"

There's another simile, here comparing love's growth and fading to the sea's ebb and flow:

...thy capacity /Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, /... But falls into abatement...."

In the last two lines, he says that love, or "fancy," has so many different manifestations, or is "so full of shapes," that it is ironically the most unreal thing of all: "it alone is high fantastical." In that summation, he seems to be giving in to the idea that his poetic talents are not doing justice to the true complexity of love.

Duke Orsino's speech at the opening of Twelfth Night expresses the lovesick feeling that follows the characters of the play, and establishes his character as melancholy and melodramatic. One example of this characterization is in lines 1-3, in which Orsino uses metaphor and personification to express his heartbreak.

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

The desire for his appetite to "sicken and... die" is personification because it gives his appetite the attributes of health and life. Additionally, describing music as the "food of love" is metaphorical, because it compares music to nourishment. He also utilizes personification to lament to love itself, stating:

O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou

This is an example of personification because he speaks directly to the "spirit of love," describing it as "quick and fresh."

Act 1, scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night takes place on the seacoast of Illyria, which is located in the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, in a region that now includes Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania. In Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Illyria is referred to as a haunt of pirates.

SUFFOLK. ...This villain here,
Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more
Than Bargulus, the strong Illyrian pirate...(Henry VI, Part 2, 4.1.112–115).

Viola, a principal character in the play, is shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria with the captain of the ship and his sailors. Viola believes that her brother, Sebastian, has drowned. She decides to dress like a man, and the captain agrees to help her conceal her identity while she tries to find employment with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria.

VIOLA. And what should I do in Illyria?
My brother he is in Elysium ... (1.2.3–4).

Here, Shakespeare uses the literary devices of consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) and assonance (repletion of vowel sounds) not only to reinforce the sounds in Illyria and Elysium , but also to make a comparison between the world of the living (Illyria), and the Greek mythological afterlife for heroes (Elysium) to which Viola believes that Sebastian has gone.

The Captain also tries his hand at consonance:

VIOLA. Know'st thou this country?

CAPTAIN. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born
Not three hours' travel from this very place (1.2.21–23).

Shakespeare also uses the literary device of repetition.

VIOLA: ... Perchance he is not drown'd: what think you, sailors?

CAPTAIN. It is perchance that you yourself were saved.

VIOLA. O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be (1.2.5-7).

Shakespeare uses "perchance" to emphasize Viola's hope that Sebastian wasn't drowned, to reinforce the lucky happenstance that Viola herself wasn't drowned—which Shakespeare uses as a pun, "perchance" meaning "by chance"—and to present the possibility, the chance, that Sebastian might be saved like Viola was.

Shakespeare also uses a literary device in act 1, scene 2 of Twelfth Night that he uses in every other play and poem that he's known to have written. Ecphonesis is a short, emotional, exclamatory word or phrase that is used to draw attention to what the character is saying.

VIOLA. O, my poor brother! (1.2.7)

...

O, that I served that lady
And might not be delivered to the world ... (1.2.43-44).

Shakespeare uses four literary devices in a speech in which the Captain describes the last time he saw Sebastian, and he uses them in the same sentence, using the same words.

CAPTAIN. I saw your brother,
Most provident in peril, bind himself,
Courage and hope both teaching him the practice,
To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves... (1.2.10-17)

A simile is a comparison between two things using "like" or "as. The Captain compares Sebastian to Arion, which is also an allusion to an ancient Greek myth. An allusion is an indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea. The reference is usually to something of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance. Quite often the allusion is to ancient Greek or Roman mythology.

Arion is an immortal horse of ancient Greek mythology, who is incredibly fast, and is usually depicted with wings. "[L]ike Arion on the dolphin's back" (1.2.15) is an allusion to a Greek myth in which Arion was cast into the sea, and a dolphin lifted Arion on its back and carried it to safety in Corinth.

Personification applies human attributes to an animal, object, or idea. "I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves" (1.2.16) personifies the waves on the sea as Sebastian's friends and acquaintances.

Imagery uses other literary devices, such as the simile, allusion, and personification in lines 15 of the Captain's speech, to appeal to our senses. The phrase "like Arion on the dolphin's back" (1.2.15) creates a visual image in the audience's imagination of the mythical creature, Arion, standing on a dolphin's back.

The image of Arion transforms into Sebastian riding on the dolphin's back, and "I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves" (1.2.16) "paints a picture" and provides an auditory sensation of Sebastian splashing in the waves as the dolphin takes him swiftly and safely to shore.

Let's examine act 1, scene 2 of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and discover at least some of the literary devices the Bard uses to enhance his narrative.

The scene features a dialogue between Viola and the Captain of their wrecked ship. In the first few lines of the conversation, the two characters repeat the word “perchance” three times as they discuss whether or not Viola's brother has been drowned. “Perchance” here means “by chance,” and Shakespeare is using this repetition to set up the theme of chance or fate in the play.

In the Captain's first major speech, he speaks of Viola's brother and says, “Courage and hope both teaching him the practise...” Here he personifies courage and hope. They are nearly living beings, and we can picture, perhaps, two such characters standing on the water next to Viola's brother, instructing him on how to bind himself to the mast and save his life.

The Captain also offers an allusion to “Arion on the dolphin's back.” This refers to a Greek myth about the singer Arion, who jumped into the water and was carried to safety by dolphins. Viola's brother reminds the Captain of this story, and the allusion suggests that perhaps the brother, too, might be saved.

Finally, the Captain says that he “saw him hold acquaintance with the waves.” This is lovely piece of imagery that invites us to picture Viola's brother getting to know the waves in almost a friendly fashion. All of these devices are meant to reassure Viola and inspire interest in the audience.

As the dialogue continues, Viola asks the Captain about who rules in Illyria. He responds, “A noble duke, in nature as in name.” This line is an excellent example of alliteration (the repetition of initial word sounds). This adds linguistic interest even as the line makes an important observation about the duke.

The Captain offers another vivid line a little later as he explains to Viola about the gossip surrounding the duke. “What great ones do the less will prattle of,” he says. The inverted syntax here places emphasis on the great ones, and the vivid word “prattle” makes the lower ones even less through their useless chatter.

Viola, describing the Captain, provides an excellent metaphor of contrast when she first speaks of his “fair behavior” and then notes, “And though that nature with a beauteous wall / Doth oft close in pollution.” She does not believe such is the case with him. Her words make us think of a delicate, ornamented wall that surrounds a noxious, filthy dump. She means, of course, that some people look lovely on the outside but are hideous in character and behavior.