CulturalV- 2020
Student: Verónica Rauscher
Assignment: Ballads. Rhetorical Devices – Figures of Speech
RHETORICAL DEVICES – FIGURES OF SPEECH
Look up the following rhetorical devices, giving examples of each of them:
-Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things.
Unlike a metaphor, a simile generally draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as.” Similes
attracts attention, and appeals directly to the senses of listeners or readers, encouraging their imaginations to
understand what is being communicated. It brings rhythm, life-like quality to the characters of fiction or
poetry.
Examples:
A Red, Red rose (by Robert Burns)
“O my Luve´slike a red, red
That´s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve´slike the melodie
That´s sweetly played in tune.”
(Robert Burns uses a simile to describe the beauty of his beloved. He says that his love is a fresh red rose that blossoms in the
spring)
Macbeth Act 1- scene 7 (by William Shakespeare)
And pity like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.
(Macbeth compares pity with the innocence and vulnerability of a baby)
Othello (by William Shakespeare)
“It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,Let me not name it to you, you chaste starts!
It is the cause. Yet I´´ll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smoothasmonumental alabaster”
(Othello compares Desdemona’s smooth skin to alabaster)
-Metaphor
A metaphor makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but
which share some common characteristics. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different
objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics. It compares two subjects without the use
of “like” or “as. While a simile states that one thing is like another, a metaphor asserts that one thing is the
other, or is a substitute for the other thing.
Examples:
The Storm (by Kate Chopin)
“Her mouth was a fountain of delight. And when he possessed her, they seemed to swoon together at the very borderland of life´s
mystery”
Macbeth- Act 1 scene 5 ( by William Shakespeare)
“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters.”
(Lady Macbeth compares the expression on Macbeth´s face to a book telling that everyone can tell what he is thinking or
feeling)
Hope is the thing with feathers (by Emily Dickinson)
Hope is the thing of feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without words
And never stops at all
(Dickinson is creating a metaphor of hope through a bird
-Personification
Personification is the projection of characteristics that normally belong only to humans onto inanimate objects,
animals, deities, or forces of nature. These characteristics can include verbs of actions that only humans do or
adjectives that describe a human condition.
Examples:
Two sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room ( by William Shakespeare)
“Two sunflowers
Move in the Yellow Room.
‘Ah, William, we´re weary of weather,’
said the sunflowers, shining with dew
Our travelling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?”
(This poem by William Blake contains a lot of examples of personification. The poem starts in a dialogue form, where a
sunflower is directly addressing the poet by calling his name. The flowers are depicting a human characteristic of weariness
caused by the weather. In a human way, they make a request to the poet to put them in a room with a window with plenty of
sunshine.)
William Shakespeare or William Blake? The poem is by Nancy Willard!
Pride and prejudice (by Jane Austen)
Her heart was divided between concern for her sister, and resentment against all the others.
(The heart in question is of the character Elizabeth. It’s clear that Elizabeth is the one divided between concern for her sister
Jane and resentment for the others, yet Austen personifies Elizabeth’s heart to have these feelings to add some poetic
sensibility to the sentence)
-Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of identical initial consonant sounds in successive or closely associated syllables
within a group of words, even those spelled differently. It creates a musical effect in the text and makes reading
and recitation of the poems attractive and appealing; thus, making them easier to learn by heart.
Examples:
Macbeth- Act 1 scene 1 (by William Shakespeare)
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air
(The repetition of “f” in the first line continues in fog and filthy air emphasizing the rhythm of the chant.)
At tea (by Thomas Hardy)
...And the happy young housewife does not know
That the woman beside her was first his choice,
Till the fates ordained it could not be so. . . .
Betraying nothing in look or voice
The guest sits smiling and sips her tea,
And he throws her a stray glance yearningly.
(There is a repetition of “s” in this second stanza of the poem)
-Assonance
Assonance, or “vowel rhyme,” is the repetition of vowel sounds across a line of text or poetry. The words have
to be near enough to each other that the similar vowel sounds are noticeable.
Examples:
West Beast East Beast (by Dr. Suess)
Upon an island hard to reach,
The East Beast sits upon his beach.
Upon the west beach sits the West Beast.
Each beach beast thinks he’s the best beast…
The bells (by Edgar Allan Poe)
"Hear the mellow wedding bells
-Rhetorical question
A rhetorical question is asked just for effect, or to lay emphasis on some point being discussed, when no real
answer is expected. A rhetorical question may have an obvious answer, but the questioner asks it to lay
emphasis to the point. In literature, a rhetorical question is self-evident, and used for style as an impressive
persuasive device.
Examples:
The Tyger( by William Blake)
Tyger,Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley
“…O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
-Apostrophe
Apostrophe is a figure of speech sometimes represented by an exclamation, such as “Oh.” A writer or speaker,
using apostrophe, speaks directly to someone who is not present or is dead, or speaks to an inanimate object.
Example:
Macbeth (byWilliam Shakespeare)
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
(In his mental conflict before murdering King Duncan, Macbeth has a strange vision of a dagger and talks to it as if it were a
person)
-Repetition
Repetition is the act of repeating sounds, words, phrases, or full sentences. It’s used to stress key points, or to
achieve a certain rhythm, tone, or style.It contributes to make an idea clearer and more memorable. There are
several types of repetition commonly used in both prose and poetry.
Example:
Annabel Lee (By Edgar Allan Poe)
“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know …
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee …”
-Inversion
Inversion, also known as “anastrophe,” is a literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed, in
order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter.
Example:
Macbeth (by Willliam Shakespeare)
“If’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have Ifil’d my mind,
For them the gracious Duncan have Imurther’d,…
-Ellipsis
Ellipsis is a literary device that is used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or event, which gives the
reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out. It is usually written between the sentences as a
series of three dots, like this: “…”
Examples:
The Great Gatsby (by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he
could find out what that thing was . . .
. . . One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, they came to a place
where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight.
(Chapter 6)
Hope' Is a Thing With Feathers (by Emily Dickinson)
"Hope" is a thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops - at all (In this case, pauses are represented by dashes, a common feature in Emily Dickinson's work).
-Antithesis
Antithesis is the use of contrasting concepts, words, or sentences within parallel grammatical structures. This
combination of a balanced structure with opposite ideas serves to highlight the contrast between them.
Examples:
A Tale of Two Cities (by Charles Dickens)
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… (Dickens uses these antithetical pairs to show what a tumultuous time it was during the setting of his book)
Dream Variations (by Langston Hughes)
Rest atpaleevening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Blacklike me
From Macbeth: ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
-Euphemism
The term euphemism refers to polite, indirect expressions that replace words and phrases considered harsh
and impolite, or which suggest something unpleasant. Euphemism is an idiomatic expression, which loses its
literal meanings and refers to something else, in order to hide its unpleasantness.
Example:
To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee)
You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around
women—black or white.
(When Lee wrote this book, the term “Negro” was an appropriate euphemism to refer to a race of people.This quote is spoken
by Atticus Finch, a man who is particularly ahead of his times in his belief in the equality of all people. Thus, it is historically
accurate that he would use such a euphemism. However, a modern-day Atticus Finch would use the more currently accepted
euphemism of “African-American.”)
-Hyperbole
Hyperbole, from a Greek word meaning "excess," is a figure of speech that uses extreme exaggeration to make
a point or show emphasis. It is usually not meant to be taken literally.
Examples:
Parker's Back (by Flannery O'Connor)
"The skin on her face was as thin and drawn as tight as the skin of onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two
picks."
Macbeth (by William Shakespeare)
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
-Metonymy
Metonymy is a type of figurative language in which an object or concept is referred to not by its own name,
but instead by the name of something closely associated with it.
Example:
The Great Gatsby (by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The party preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside—
East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.
(F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a place name (party)to stand in for the people in that place.)
-Oxymoron
It is a word or group of words that is self-contradicting, as in bittersweet or plastic glass.As a literary device,
oxymoron has the effect of creating an impression, enhancing a concept, and even entertaining the reader.
Examples:
Romeo and Juliet (by Wiliam Shakespeare)
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow
(Juliet describes her feelings about Romeo leaving her presence as “sweet sorrow”, which may seem contradictory)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.
(The phrase “terrific liar” pairs two words that have opposing connotations. “Terrific” has positive connotations, as in
wonderful or extraordinarily great. However, “liar” has negative connotations)
-Parallelism
Parallelism is a literary device in which parts of the sentence are grammatically the same, or are similar in
construction. It can be a word, a phrase, or an entire sentence repeated.
Examples:
The Tyger (by William Blake)
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? whatdread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
(Blake uses parallel structures, starting with “what” in each phrase, creating a beautiful rhythm in the above lines.)
How do I Love Thee (By Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
“I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”
-Pun
A pun is a play on words that produces a humorous effect by using a word that suggests two or more
meanings, or by exploiting similar sounding words that have different meanings.
Example:
The Importance of Being Earnest(by Oscar Wilde)
"I've realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest."
(By the beginning of the play, the main character is neither earnest or Ernest, but by the end of the play he is both)
-Anaphora
Anaphora is the repetition of a certain word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines of writing or speech.
It can be used in novels and short stories, but it's most commonly seen in poetry, essays, and formal speeches.
Examples:
At Tea(by Thomas Hardy)
The kettle descants in a cozy drone,
And the young wife looks in her husband's face,
And then at her guest's, and shows in her own
Her sense that she fills an envied place;
And the visiting lady is all abloom,
And says there was never so sweet a room.
And the happy young housewife does not know
That the woman beside her was first his choice,
Till the fates ordained it could not be so. . . .
Betraying nothing in look or voice
The guest sits smiling and sips her tea,
And he throws her a stray glance yearningly.
A Tale of Two Cities (by Charles Dickens)
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.
-Good!
Lic. Eduardo Gemetto
Verónica Rauscher