AP Latin Literary Devices

anaphora

repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive clauses

"Five years have passed;

Five summers, with the length of

Five long winters! and again I hear these waters..."

alliteration

repetition of the same letter or sound, usually at the beginning of a series of words

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

anastrophe

inversion of the usual order of words, e.g. placing a preposition after, instead of before, the word it governs

"potatoes I like"

urbem circum

aposiopesis

("a falling silent") a breaking off in the middle of a sentence, the syntax of which is never resumed

"No, Percy, thou art dust,

And food for —"

quos ego---!

apostrophe

sudden break from the previous narrative for an address, in the second person, of some person or object, absent or present

"O stranger of the future!

O inconceivable being!"

o patria, o divum domus Ilium

asyndeton

omission of conjunctions

"Call up her father.

Rouse him. Make after him, Poison his delight,

Proclaim him in the streets. Incense her kinsmen."

chiasmus

arrangement of words in a mirroring, or ABBA, pattern, found most often with pairs of nouns and adjectives

"Love as if you would one day hate,

and hate as if you would one day love."

pacis ornamenta et subsidia belli

ekphrasis

an extended and elaborate description of a work of art, a building, or a natural setting

ellipsis

The omission of a word from the grammatical structure that's easily understood from context

e.g. all those times esse is left out

enallage

the transference of an epithet from the word to which it strictly belongs to another word connected with it in thought

saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram

enjambment

continuation of a unit of thought beyond the end of one verse (i.e. a line) and into the first few feet of the next

euphemism

avoidance of a direct, sometimes blunt manner of speaking in favor of a more subtle, sometimes diluted, form of expression

e vita excedit

hendiadys

the use of two nouns connected by a conjunction instead of using a noun modified by an adjectives or with another modifying noun

"nice and warm" instead of pleasantly warm

molemque et montes

hiatus

avoidance in meter of elision between words

hyperbaton

distanced placement of two words which are logically meant to be understood together, yoda talk

hyperbole

exaggeration for rhetorical effect

hysteron proteron

the reversal of the natural or logical order of ideas

"Let us die and run into the midst of arms."

litotes

understatement, often enhanced by the use of the negative

non multa = pauca

metaphor

implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it

metonymy

substitution of one word for another which it suggests

"the pen is mightier than the sword"

Cererem corruptam undis, Ceres= bread

onomatopoeia

use of words of which the sound suggests the sense

"bam! shush! thud!"

magno cum murmure montis

oxymoron

the use in combination of apparently contradictory words

"parting is such sweet sorrow"

festina lente

personification

attribution of personality to an impersonal thing

pleonasm

the use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning, either as a fault of style or for emphasis

atra nox = black night

polysyndeton

overabundance of conjunctions

disiecitque rates evertitque aequora

preterition (praeteritio)

mentioning a fact by pretending to pass over it

Let us not talk about his drunkenness

prolepsis

the inclusion in the main story of references to events which in fact will occur after the dramatic time of the poem, and to the people and circumstances involved in these later events

e.g. referring to a "sunk ship" when it's still afloat

summersas obrue puppes

rhetorical question

figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked in order to make a point and without the expectation of a reply

simile

explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'

synchesis

interlocking word order; ABAB

saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram

synecdoche

the use of a part for the whole

"Nice wheels!"

tecti" = roofs = houses, "puppes" = decks = ships

tmesis

separation into two parts of a word normally written as one, often for a visual effect

"Abso-freaking-lutely"

circum-dea-fudit

tricolon crescens

the accumulation of three parallel phrases or clauses, each of which is at least one syllable longer than that preceding it

"of the people, by the people, for the people"

zeugma

the joining of two words by a modifying or governing word which strictly applies to only one of them

"You held your breath and the door for me."

antithesis

the deliberate pairing or juxtapositioning of opposite ideas or expressions