Literary Devices and Rhetorical Strategies: Definitions and Examples

hyperbaton

inversion of the natural or usual word order; separation of words usually belonging together ("This is the kind of impertinence up with which I will not put")

apostrophe

a diversion of discourse from the topic at hand to addressing some person or thing, either present or absent ("Soul of the age! The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage! My Shakespeare rise.)

enjambment

(in poetry) the continuation of a sentence or clause beyond the end of a line, couplet or stanza

prosopopeia

(personification): representing an imaginary or absent person as speaking or acting; attributing life, speech or inanimate qualities to dumb or inanimate objects

antithesis

the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure; repetition of clauses or idea by negation

simile

an explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common

rhetorical question

asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something

periphrasis

substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name

anaphora

repetition of a word at the beginning of a clause, line, or sentence

antimetabole

repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order; a chiasmus on the level of words (AB; BA)

chiasmus

(the criss-cross or ABBA) reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses which do not necessarily involve a repetition of words ("Everything for the horse except the rider, and everything for the rider except the horse.")

antanaclasis

repetition of a word, but in two different meanings (cf. English pun)

metaphor

the substitution of a word for a word whose meaning is close to the original word

metonymy

substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant (crown for royalty, wealth for rich people)

synechdoche

substitution of part for whole, genus for species, or vice versa (Toronto won the game)

epistrophe

repetition of a word at the end of a clause, line, or sentence

aphaeresis

omission of letters from the beginning of a word (ward for reward)

polyptoton

repetition of the same word or root in different grammatical functions or forms ("Virtuosity is some evidence of virtue.")

alliteration

repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words

assonance

the repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words ("tiny, timid, tentative, tardy")

climax

arrangement of words, phrases or clauses in an order of increasing importance

Conceit

a complex and arresting metaphor, in context usually part of a larger pattern of imagery, which stimulates understanding by combining objects and concepts in unconventional ways. In the Petrarchan conceits, physical qualities or experiences are metaphorically described in terms of incommensurate physical objects ('When I turn to snow before your burning rays')

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that yokes together two seemingly contradictory elements, thus a form of condensed paradox (see 'o heavy lightness' etc.). It is an important poetic device in Petrarchan poetry.

Paradox

a daring statement which unites seemingly contradictory words but which on closer examination proves to have unexpected meaning and truth ('life is death and death is life). The structure of paradox is similar to the oxymoron, which unites two contradictory concepts into a third, a favorite strategy of Petrarchan poetry. Paradox is especially suited to an expression of the unspeakable in religion, mysticism, and poetry.