overstatement
understatement
Denise Stanley
“O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.”
- William
Blake
1. I love you and I don't love you.
2. Butch is married to Barb but Barb is not
married to Butch.
3. I know I promised to show up today, but I
don't see why I should come if I don't
feel like it.
4. The restaurant opens at five o'clock and it
serves dinner between four and nine.
5. John Lasagna will be a little late for the
party. He died yesterday.
Much Madness is divinest Sense To a discerning Eye Much Sense - the starkest Madness ’Tis the Majority
In this, as all, prevail Assent - and you are sane Demur - you’re straightway
dangerous And handled with a Chain -
- Emily Dickinson
“Well now, one winter it was so cold that
all the geese flew backward and all the
fish moved south and even the snow
turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid
that all spoken words froze solid afore
they could be heard. People had to wait
until sunup to find out what folks were
talking about the night before.”
- from Paul Bunyan folklore
In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield says:
“I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”
(Having a tumor in the brain is a serious issue which has been understated in the above statement.)