 Trope is a figure of speech in which the use of a
word or a phrase other than in its literal meaning,
changes the meaning of a sentence.
 The word trope comes from Greek tropos meaning
turn. That is, turning the meaning of a sentence
another way by the use of a word(s).
 There are many kinds of tropes in the English
language.
 When there is a change in the usual order of
words for effect, then it’s called a scheme.
 Schemes deal with word order, letters, syntax and
sounds whereas trope deals with modifying the
meaning of a word.
 Scheme comes from Greek schēma meaning “form” or
“shape”.
 When the same word is used at the beginning of each clause,
sentence or line; that’s anaphora.
“Singing the song of procreation,
Singing the need of superb children and therein superb grown
people,
Singing the muscular urge and the blending…” - Walt Whitman.
 Anaphora has been used in poetry for centuries, especially by
Elizabethan and Romantic poets. Anaphora creates parallelism, lends
rhythm to the lines, and stresses the word or the phrase that is being
repeated. It’s a good way to intensify emotions in verse or prose by
repeating a certain poignant emotional stanza.
 The word anaphora comes from Greek meaning carrying back.
 The Tyger by William Blake
“What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”
 Birds of Passage (Leaves of Grass) byWalt Whitman
“O you daughters of the West!
O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you
wives!
Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
Pioneers! O pioneers!”
 When conjunctions (and, or, but, so, yet, for) are
used in close succession even when they are not
required, then it’s called polysyndeton.
 It is usually used for emphasis and rhythm.
 For example: He came and bowed and laughed and
dropped into a chair.
 The word polysyndeton comes from Greek
polysyndetos meaning “bound together”.
 In Another Country by Ernest Hemingway
“There was much game hanging outside the shops, and
the snow powdered in the fur of the foxes and the wind
blew their tails. The deer hung stiff and heavy and
empty, and small birds blew in the wind and the wind
turned their feathers. It was a cold fall and the wind
came down from the mountains.”
 Me Imperturbe by Walt Whitman
“Me toward the Mexican Sea, or in the Mannahatta, or
the Tennessee, or far north, or inland, A river man, or a
man of the woods, or of any farm-life in These States,
or of the coast, or the lakes, or Kanada…”
When you repeat letters or consonants to create rhythm or harmony, that’s called alliteration.
Beowulf (author unknown)
“Then, one after one, there woke to him,
to the chieftain of clansmen, children four:
Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave;
and I heard that -- was --'s queen,
the Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear.”
The Man with a Hoe by Edwin Markham
“Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?
Alliteration in The Thorn by William Wordsworth
“Like rock or stone, it is o'ergrown,
With lichens to the very top,
And hung with heavy tufts of moss,
A melancholy crop…”
 Something that on the surface is its literal self but which
also has another meaning or even several meanings. For
example, a sword may be a sword and also symbolize
justice. A symbol may be said to embody an idea.
 For instance, consider the stop sign. It is literally a metal
octagon painted red with white streaks. However, everyone
on American roads will be safer if we understand that this
object also represents the act of coming to a complete stop-an idea hard to encompass briefly without some sort of
symbolic substitute.
 To identify symbols, keep in mind that symbols are often
given great emphasis in a story.
 Look for events, objects, or settings to which the writer
has given a great deal of emphasis.
 Look for objects, people, or words that reappear
throughout the story.
 when the author places two themes, characters, phrases, words, or
situations together for the purpose of comparison or contrast or
inference.
For instance, in film, you have a shot of a very thin man, dressed shabbily, looking
down. Then you cut to an overhead shot looking down and on a table you see
an empty bowl, clean. The viewer would create meaning between these two
shots, the man is hungry and has no food to eat.
Ex: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
 A word or phrase used in an easy, informal style of writing
or speaking. It is usually more appropriate in speech than
formal writing. Colloquialisms appear often in literature
since they provide a sense of actual conversation and use
the pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary of everyday
speech.
“I says, 'What's this call, this sperit?' An' I says, 'It's love. I
love people so much I'm fit to bust, sometimes.‘”
(Steinbeck).
An allusion is an indirect reference to a well-known person, place, book, event, movies,
fictional character, television show, cartoon characters etc. With the help of an allusion, the
author can, in a few words, make numerous associations between two things.
He is the Shakespeare of our class.
Immediately, ‘he’ takes on the qualities of Shakespeare, which are remembered until today.
Biblical allusion in Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
‘"There!" says she, and taking the most unwomanly oaths upon her
tongue, bade me begone and carry it to the Judas who had sent me.
It was the first time I had heard the name applied to Mr. Henry; I
was staggered besides at her sudden vehemence of word and manner,
and got forth from the room, under this shower of curses, like a
beaten dog.’
It is believed that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus.
A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things
are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by
like or as.
A simile tells us, in part, what a metaphor merely nudges us
into thinking. . . .
 "Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and
sometimes you weep.“ -Carl Sandburg
 "She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with
meat.“- James Joyce, "The Boarding House"
 My father grumbles like a bear in the mornings.
 Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object is
personified, by attributing human traits and qualities
to it.
 Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.
 The camera loves me.
 Opportunity knocked on the door.
 The sun played hide and seek with the clouds.
 Lightning danced across the sky.
 The flowers were crying for my attention.
 My computer hates me.
A way of indicating or hinting at what will come later.
Foreshadowing can be subtle, like storm clouds on the
horizon suggesting that danger is coming, or more direct,
such as Romeo and Juliet talking about wanting to die
rather than live without each other.
Foreshadowing adds dramatic tension to a story by building
anticipation about what might happen next. Authors use
foreshadowing to create suspense or to convey information
that helps readers understand what comes later.
Foreshadowing can make extraordinary, even fanciful
events seem more believable; if the text foreshadows
something, the reader feels prepared for the events when
they happen.
 Are there phrases about the future?
 Is there a change happening in the weather, the
setting, or the mood?
 Are there objects or scenic elements that suggest
something happy, sad, dangerous, exciting, etc.?
 Do characters or the narrator observe something
in the background that might be a hint about
something to come later?
 Imagery allows a writer to show a writer what she means instead
of just telling someone.
 Makes use of the 5 senses to paint a picture for the reader, not just
telling.
The hot July sun beat relentlessly down, casting an orange glare over
the farm buildings, the fields, the pond. Even the usually cool
green willows bordering the pond hung wilted and dry. Our sunbaked backs ached for relief. We quickly pulled off our sweaty
clothes and plunged into the pond, but the tepid water only
stifled us and we soon climbed onto the brown, dusty bank. Our
parched throats longed for something cool--a strawberry ice, a tall
frosted glass of lemonade.
We pulled on our clothes, crackling underbrush, the sharp briars
pulling at our damp jeans, until we reached the watermelon patch.
As we began to cut open the nearest melon, we could smell the
pungent skin mingling with the dusty odor of the dry earth.
Suddenly, the melon gave way with a crack, revealing the deep,
pink sweetness inside.
When an attribute of, or something associated with, the thing being
described is used
Examples of metonymy
 The truck hit me from behind. (The truck hit my car from behind.)
 The press has made my life hell. (Journalists)
 Today, we will be performing Shakespeare. (a play of Shakespeare)
 Obama has launched an attack. (America)
 I couldn’t catch his tongue. (language)
 The Pentagon has made an announcement. (The U.S. Dept. of
Defense)
 They will reach the sceptred isles by sunset. (Britian)
 The White House is certain of the positive outcome of its actions. (The
 President and his staff)
Metonymy between a thing and its contents
 I didn’t like that book. (the contents of the book)
 He has brains. (what is inside his brain – intelligence)
 1) Strong verbs show instead of tell
 Example:
 Example:
The tiger ate the antelope.
The tiger devoured the antelope.
The Buffalo injured the hunter.
The Buffalo gored the hunter.
 2) Single verbs show better than verb/adverb combinations.
 Example:
 Example:
He uses time wisely when writing essays.
He maximized time when writing essays.
The lion ferociously ate the gazelle.
The lion gobbled the gazelle (note the use of alliteration).
 3) Be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been) suck the life out of your writing!
 Example:
He was bludgeoned by the boxer.
The boxer bludgeoned him.
 Example:
The pedestrian was run over by the school bus.
The school bus ran over the pedestrian.
 4) Have/has/had combined with a noun encourage readers to wedge their head in
a vice.
 Example:
 Example:
I had an argument with the referee.
I argued with the referee
I had dinner with the sheriff.
I dined with the sheriff.