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Rhethoric Figures and Tropes
Rhethoric Figures and Tropes with definition and examples
20
Literature
Undergraduate 3
11/09/2010

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Term
HYPERBATON
Definition
The use, especially for emphasis of a word order other than the expected as usual one.

"Him the Almighty Power hurled headlong"
(Milton)

"Bird thou never wert" (Shelley)
Term
POLYPTOTON
Definition
Taking a word and echoing it with another word derived from the same root.

"I prove a horseman to my horse" (Sidney)

"Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood" (Shakespeare)
Term
SYLLEPSIS
Definition
Using a word having two different meanings without repeating the word, thus suggesting ambiguity.

"Of man's first disobedience and the fruit" (Milton)
[fruit as both "apple" and "result"]

"Happy, ye leaves, when as those lilly hands" (Spenser)
[Leaves as both pages and leaves]
Term
ZEUGMA
Definition
Using a verb for two different objets, implying two different meanings.

"Stain her honour or her new brocade,
Lose her heart or her necklace"
(Pope)
Term
ASTEISMUS
Definition
In a dialogue, a word returned by the answerer with an unlooked-for second meaning.

"Feste: No sir, I live by the Church
Viola: Art thou a churchman?
F: No such thing sir, I do live by the Church for I live at my house and my house doth stand by the Church."
(Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)

"Gertrude: 'Tis common; all that lives must die. [common: universal]
Hamlet: Ay madam, it is common. [common: vulgar]
G: If it be, why seems it so particular with thee? [seems: appears]
H: I know not seems (...) for those are actions that a man might play. [seems: pretends]
(Shakespeare, Hamlet)
Term
ANTIMETABOLE
Definition
Repeat the elements of a phrase in a different order.

"Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There's many a gentle person made a Jack."
(Shakespeare)
Term
EPISTROPHE
Definition
Repetition of a word at the end of two or more lines or clauses.

"These lines that now thou scorns't, which should delight thee,
Then would I make thee read, but to despite thee."
(Drayton)
Term
APOSTROPHE
Definition
To address a person, animal or object, whether present or absent, to express anger, a demand, etc.

"Hence, loathèd Melancholy, of Cerberus and blackest midnight born"
(Milton)

"Ye tradefull Merchants, that with weary toylle"
(Spenser)
Term
PLOCE
Definition
Repetition of a word in a clause or line.

"When thou hast done, thou hast not done"

"Mark but this flea, and mark in this"

(Donne)
Term
ANTANACLASIS
Definition
Repeating a word while shifting from one meaning to another.

"Until I labour, I in labour lie"

(Donne)
Term
ANADIPLOSIS (Climax or Gradatio)
Definition
To use anadiplosis in three or more clauses.

"That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain, pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain"
(Sidney)
Term
EPANADIPLOSIS
Definition
Repeating the same word at the beginning and at the end of the same line or clause.

"Kings it made gods,
and meaner creatures kings"
(Shakespeare)
Term
PARISON
Definition
Repetition of two or more words in a symmetrical structure.

"It made his own lieutenant Nature shrink,
It made his footstool crack and sun wink"
(Donne)

"Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?
Was ever woman in this humour won?"
(Shakespeare)
Term
PARONOMASIA
Definition
Repeating a word similar in sound to one already used.

"Cousins, indeed, and by their uncle cozen'd"

"Not my deserts, but what I will deserve"

(Shakespeare)
Term
ANADIPLOSIS
Definition
Giving the same word the last position in a clause or verse, and the first or near the first, in the following one.

"I saw, and liked; I liked, but lovèd not; I loved, but straight did not what Love decreed."
(Sidney)
Term
ANAPHORA
Definition
Repeating a word at the beginning of two or more lines or phrases.

"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
(Shakespeare)

"What in me is dark illumine, what is low raise and support."
(Milton)
Term
ALLITERATION
Definition
Repetition of the same consonants at the beginning of the words or in a stressed syllable.

"As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames no light"
(Milton)
Term
ELLIPSIS
Definition
A word or several words are left out in order to achieve a compact expression.

"lust is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust." [verbs]
(Shakespeare)

"From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure [flows], then from thee, much more [pleasure] must flow."
(Donne)
Term
PERIPHRASIS
Definition
A roundabout way of speaking or writing to use long clauses or sophisticated words to refer to something or someone.

"Nine times the space that measure day and night to mortal men" [nine days]
(Milton)

"That shepherd that first taught the chosen seed how in the beginning the heavens and earth were created" [Moses told the Jews how the universe had been created]
(Milton)
Term
EPIZEUXIS
Definition
Repetition of a word without any other word intervening.

"Words, words, words"
(Shakespeare)
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