1
A Very Brief Compilation of Rhetorical Devices*
Alliteration
“The commencing of two or more words in close connection, with the same letter, or rather the
same sound.”
Examples:
“Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers”
“Now at the last gasp of Love’s lasting breath” (from Michael Drayton’s, “Nay, I
have done, you get no more of me” line nine.)
The alliteration of ‘l’ furthers his emphasis on dying. They make a long
sound that stretches the line as though one is drawing a long, perhaps last,
breath.
Assonance
“Resemblance or correspondence of sound between two words or syllables.” (vowels)
Examples:
“Nay, I have done, you get no more of me” (from Michael Drayton’s, “Nay, I
have done, you get no more of me” line two).
The assonance throughout the whole line on the “o” gives a feeling of loss,
or perhaps, egotism on the speakers part for he obviously feels he was
quite a good man for this lady.
“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So
old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came.” (from Carl
Sandburg’s Early Moon)
The assonance on the “o” creates a long vowel sound, which in turn
sounds old or mysterious.
W131 Autumn ’12 – Reynolds
*All definitions from OED Online
2
Anadiplosis
“Reduplication; the beginning of a sentence, line, or clause with the concluding, or any
prominent, word of the one preceding.”
Examples:
"When I give I give myself." (Walt Whitman)
"I am Sam, Sam I am." (Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham)
“Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task” (Henry James The
Middle Years)
Anaphora
“The repetition of the same word or phrase in several successive clauses.”
Examples:
The most famous example is from Martin Luther King Jr. and his I Have a Dream
speech. He does this to emphasize his passion, his dream.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still
have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,
with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition"
W131 Autumn ’12 – Reynolds
*All definitions from OED Online
3
and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and
black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls
as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill
and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and
the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
Antithesis
“An opposition or contrast of ideas, expressed by using as the corresponding members of two
contiguous sentences or clauses, words which are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with,
each other; as ‘he must increase, but I must decrease,’ ‘in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of
the letter’.”
Examples:
"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here." (Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 1863)
"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." (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)
Euphemism
“That figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or expression of
comparatively favourable implication or less unpleasant associations, instead of the harsher or
more offensive one that would more precisely designate what is intended.”
Examples:
“We need to discuss the birds and the bees.”
Nicer words for saying crazy: wacky, unhinged, coo-coo, a little loony, nutcase
Disabled for handicap; departed or passed away for deceased, etc.
W131 Autumn ’12 – Reynolds
*All definitions from OED Online
4
Hyperbole
“A figure of speech consisting in exaggerated or extravagant statement, used to express strong
feeling or produce a strong impression, and not intended to be understood literally.”
Examples:
“If I don’t get that new pair of jeans I am going to die!”
“I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”
“He is as skinny as a flagpole/toothpick/string bean.”
Irony
“A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the
words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are
used to imply condemnation or contempt.”
Examples:
You laugh at someone who slipped on ice and later that day you too slip on ice.
Edmund Spencer in The Shepheardes Calender, was being ironic because he
claimed humility, but throughout the entire poem he had all of the characters
praise his authorial persona, Colin Cloute, in turn praising himself.
Metaphor
“A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or
action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this,
a metaphorical expression.”
Examples:
In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, the great white whale is a metaphor for internal
psychological struggle, death, and the human conscious.
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players” (From Shakespeare’s As You Like It)
W131 Autumn ’12 – Reynolds
*All definitions from OED Online
5
Oxymoron
“A figure of speech in which a pair of opposed or markedly contradictory terms are placed in
conjunction for emphasis.”
Examples:
Jumbo shrimp, deafening silent, icy hot, awfully nice, objective opinion,
confirmed rumor, true story, climb down, etc.
Personification
“The attribution of human form, nature, or characteristics to something; the representation of a
thing or abstraction as a person (esp. in a rhetorical figure or a metaphor); (Art) the symbolic
representation of a thing or abstraction by a human figure.”
Examples:
The wind stood up and gave a shout.
He whistled on his fingers and
Kicked the withered leaves about
And thumped the branches with his hand
And said he'd kill and kill and kill,
And so he will! And so he will! (James Stephens, The Wind)
Giving an inanimate object human characteristics.
Simile
“A comparison of one thing with another, esp. as an ornament in poetry or rhetoric” (with like or
as)
Examples:
Unlike the metaphor, the simile is less direct by using “like” or “as”.
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore. (Edgar Allan Poe To Helen)
Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall
She walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens. (Ezra Pound The
Garden)
You are as beautiful as the sparkly falling snow on a December night.
W131 Autumn ’12 – Reynolds
*All definitions from OED Online
6
The Appeals
Aristotle, a Greek rhetorician, postulated three primary tactics of effective arguments. He used
these tactics to explain how rhetoric functions.
 Ethos (author credibility)
 How the author establishes his credibility to his audience. This is
important because an author must appear trustworthy in order to be taken
seriously.
 Pathos (appeals to emotions and values)
 Elements the author uses to appeal to his audiences’ emotion or values.
(The writer may attempt to invoke an emotional response or appeal to
similar values as their intended audience.)
 Logos (appeals to logic)
 The facts and evidence used in the argument.
Other worthy considerations
Style – overall, what kind of style is used? Informal? Formal? Academic?
Does the writer employ humor, seriousness, etc.?
Diction – what word choices is the author using? Why? What effect does it elicit?
W131 Autumn ’12 – Reynolds
*All definitions from OED Online