| “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs” | Romeo; Metaphor; Love is a disappointment and clouds your mind. |
| “It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/like rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear–“ | Romeo; Simile; She stands out. |
| “My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand” | Romeo; Personification/Metaphor; My lips are ready. |
| “The orchard walls are high and hard to climb” | Juliet; Iambic Pentameter; The walls are high and hard to climb. |
| “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun” | Romeo; Metaphor; Juliet is the light among the darkness. |
| “Thy old groans ring yet in mine ancient ears” | Friar Laurence; Personification/Iambic Pentameter; I still remember your complaints clearly. |
| “She would be as swift in motion as a ball” | Juliet; Simile; The nurse would be quick as a ball. |
| “Cheek of night” | Romeo; Euphemism; Cheek of an African |
| “I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw./Ay, while you love, draw your neck out of collar.” | Sampson and Gregory; Pun; What I mean is, if they make us angry we’ll pull out our swords./Maybe you should focus on pulling yourself out of trouble. |
| “Put up your swords. You know not what you do./What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?” | Benvolio and Tybalt; Alliteration; Put your swords away. You don’t know what you’re doing./What? You’ve pulled out your sword to fight with these worthless servants? |
| “Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,/Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!” | Romeo; Oxymoron; Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake—it’s everything except what it is! |
| “With Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit./And in strong proof of chastity well armed./From love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed./She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow/Do I live dead that live to tell it now.” | Romeo; Allusion; …by Cupid’s arrow. She’s as clever as Diana./And shielded by the armor of chastity./She can’t be touched by the weak and childish arrows of love./She’s sworn off love, and that promise has/left me alive but dead, living only to talk about it now. |
| “It is the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets.” | Peter; Juxtaposition; It is written that shoemakers and tailors should play with each others’ tools, that fisherman should play with paints, and painters should play with with fishing nets. |
| “Nay he’s a flower, in faith a very flower.” | Nurse; Metaphor; No, he’s a fine flower, truly, a flower. |
| “Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,/And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen:/Examine every married lineament,/And see how one another lends content;/And What obscured in this fair volume lies/Find written in the margent of his eyes.” | Lady Capulet; Metaphor; Study Paris’s face/And find pleasure in his beauty:/Examine every line of his features/And see how they work together to make him handsome;/If you are confused/Just look into his eyes. |
| “Two such opposed kings encamp them still/In man as well as herbs–grace and ruse will;/And where the worser is predominant,/Full soon the canker death eats up the plant.” | Friar Laurence; Simile/Juxtaposition; There are two opposite elements in everything,/In men as well as in herbs—good and evil./When evil is dominant,/death soon kills the body like cancer. |
| “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!/Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?/Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelic,/Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb,” | Juliet; Juxtaposition/Oxymoron; Oh, he’s like a snake disguised as a flower!/Did a dragon ever hide in such a beautiful cave?/He’s a beautiful tyrant and a fiendish angel!/He’s a raven with the feathers of the dove. He’s a lamb who hunts like a wolf! |
| “Shall I believe that unsubstantial Death is amorous,/And that the abhorred monster keeps/Thee here in dark to be his paramour?” | Romeo; Personification; Should I believe that death is in love with you,/And that the awful monster keeps/You here to be his mistress? |
| “Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death./Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,/Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open./And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.” | Romeo; Personification; You horrible mouth of death!/You’ve eaten up the dearest creature on Earth./Now I’m going to force open your rotten jaws/And make you eat another body. |
| “From the world-wearied flesh. Eyes look your last.” | Romeo; Alliteration; Eyes, look out for the last time! |
| “The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade/To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall/Like death when he shuts/Up the day of life;” | Friar Laurence; Simile/Metaphor/Personification; The red in your lips and your cheeks will turn pale,/and your eyes will shut./It will seem like you’re dead. |
| “…Chain me with roaring bears… O’ercovered with dead mean’s rattling bones.” | Juliet; Onomatopoeia; …Chain me up with wild bears… Hide me every night in a morgue full of dead bodies |
| “O friar, the damned use that word in hell;/howling attends it!/How hast thou the heart…” | Romeo; Alliteration; Oh Friar, damned souls use the word banishment to describe hell./They howl about banishment. |
| “The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,” | Friar Laurence; Personification; The smiling morning is replacing the frowning night. |
Romeo and Juliet Quotations
November 26, 2019