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repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence
*Let us go forth to lead the land we love. J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural |
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the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines.
*We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island..." Churchill |
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transposition of normal word order; most often found in Latin in the case of prepositions and the words they control. Anastrophe is a form of hyperbaton.
*The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up blew." Coleridge |
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opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.
*Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Barry Goldwater |
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expression of doubt (often feigned) by which a speaker appears uncertain as to what he should think, say, or do.
*Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?'" Luke 16 |
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a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present.
*For brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him." Shakespeare |
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Use of an older or obsolete form.
*Pipit sate upright in her chair some distance from where I was sitting." T. S. Elliot |
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repetition of the same sound in words close to each other.
*Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. |
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harsh joining of sounds
*We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang who work your wicked will." Winston Churchill |
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two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels (a-b-a-b) but in inverted order (a-b-b-a) ; from shape of the Greek letter chi (X).
*Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always." MacArthur |
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arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power. Often the last emphatic word in one phrase or clause is repeated as the first emphatic word of the next.
*One equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." Tennyson Ulysses |
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substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.
*(Look at packet) |
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exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.
*My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow; An hundred years should got to praise thine eyes and on thine forehead gaze; two hundred to adore each breast, but thirty thousand to the rest." Andrew Marvell |
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expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean another
*Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man." Shakespeare |
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understatement, for intensification, by denying the contrary of the thing being affirmed. (Sometimes used synonymously with meiosis.)
*A few unannounced quizzes are not inconceivable. |
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implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.
*Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage." Shakespeare |
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substitution of one word for another which it suggests.
*He is a man of the cloth.
*The pen is mightier than the sword. |
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| use of words to imitate natural sounds; accommodation of sound to sense |
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apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another.
*Festina lente.
*I must be cruel only to be kind." Shakespeare |
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an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.
*"What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." Bernard Shaw |
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use of similar sounding words; often etymological word-play
*... culled cash, or cold cash, and then it turned into a gold cache. E. L. Doctorow |
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the anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause before its antecedent.
*Vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi, Vergil, aeneid 4.653 |
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an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'
*"My love is as a fever, longing still for that which longer nurseth the disease." Shakespeare |
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use of a word with two others, with each of which it is understood differently
*"We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin |
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repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence.
*"With malice toward none, with charity for all." Abe Lincoln |
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two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them.
*Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn the living record of your memory. |
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