APOSTROPHE

Apostrophe (pronounced the same way as the punctuation mark) is a figure of speech by which you talk to someone dead or to something that cannot talk back (like a table).

It is not so farfetched as it may sound in the definition. For example, every time you invoke a non-presence, you are using apostrophe:

     Mama Mia!

     Holy Toledo!

     Ventre de St. Pierre!

In Walt Disney's film "The Reluctant Dragon," the dragon addresses a poem to an upsidedown cake. The cake does not respond.

We use apostrophe often in conversation, usually without much thought. Any prayer might also be considered a form of apostrophe.

Ben Jonson begins a famous poem memorializing his rival Shakespeare with the following lines:

     To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,
     Am I thus ample to thy book and fame.

He's talking to Shakespeare as if Shakespeare were standing right next to him. Later in the poem, you may recall, he addresses Shakespeare as "Sweet swan of Avon."

 John Donne begins one of his most famous sonnets thus:

     Death, be not proud. . .