RHETORICAL DEVICES A handy guide
Anaphora Definition: A repetition of words at the beginning of a clause. Examples: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way... 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, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
Epistrophe/Epiphora The repetition of words or phrases at the end of a clause. "Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don t give me the same idiot. (Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, speaking about FEMA Chief Michael Brown, Sep. 6, 2005) "I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper, she's a Pepper, we're a Pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too? Dr. Pepper." (advertising jingle for Dr. Peppper soft drink) "Success hasn t changed Frank Sinatra. When he was unappreciated and obscure, he was hot-tempered, egotistical, extravagant, and moody. Now that he is rich and famous, he is still hot-tempered, egotistical, extravagant, and moody." (Dorothy Kilgallen, 1959 newspaper column)
Metaphor/Simile Tenor,Vehicle, Aspect Definition: Metaphor is when you use two nouns and compare or contrast them to one another. Simile uses two nouns to compare or contrast but unlike metaphor uses like or as. Examples: "A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind." Our own
Catalogue Catalogue--a traditional epic device consisting of a long rhetorical list or inventory. "In St. Vitus' Cathedral, in Prague, you can find the craniums of St. Adalbert and St. Wenceslas, St. Stephen's sword, a fragment of the Cross, the table cloth used for the Last Supper, one of St. Margaret's teeth, a fragment of St. Vitalius' shinbone, one of St. Sophia's ribs, St. Eoban's chin, Moses' rod, the Virgin's dress."
Alliteration, assonance, Onomatopoeia Alliteration: The repetition of the beginning sounds of words. Adam s apple Assonance-The repetition of a vowel sound. looking,brooking, through a book Onomatopoeia- A word that imitates a sound it represents. Bang! Whiz!
Chiasmus A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget." (Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 200) "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good." (Samuel Johnson) "If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks." (Frederick Douglass, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage")
Anadiplosis the repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next. "When I give I give myself." (Walt Whitman) "We work in the dark--we do what we can--we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art." (Henry James, "The Middle Years." Scribner's Magazine, 1893) I am Sam. Sam I am.
RHETORICAL QUESTION A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply WHY ME? Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? (Shylock in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice) "Can I ask a rhetorical question? Well, can I?" (Ambrose Bierce) "Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?" (H. L. Mencken)
Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. In dramatic works and poetry written in or translated into English, such a figure of speech is often introduced by the exclamation "O". O, Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so", John Donne, "Holy Sonnet X"
Synedoche/Metonymy Metonymy-Substitution of one word for another which it suggests. *He is a man of the cloth. *The pen is mightier than the sword. *By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread. Synedoche: understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A form of metonymy.) *Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6 *I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" *The U.S. won three gold medals. (Instead of, The members of the U.S. boxing team won three gold medals.)
Personification Personification is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas).... She did not realize that opportunity was knocking at her door. 2. He did not realize that his last chance was walking out the door.