schemes + tropes

Parallelism

He tried to make the law clear, precise and equitable.

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Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses

Antithesis

\[We\] shall support any friend, oppose any foe.

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The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas or words, often in parallel structure

Climax

"Let a man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country, and his God."

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The arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in parallel structure

Inversion

Backward run the sentences, till reels the mind.

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The usual word order is rearranged

Parenthesis

What I am trying to say - and I do not think this an unfair comment - is that we were a much more idealistic generation.

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Insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence

Apposition

Mrs. Zadlock, the AP Language and Composition teacher, gave students a long list of schemes and tropes.

Juxtaposing two coordinating elements, normally noun phrases, one of which defines, explains or modifies the other.

Ellipsis

I ate seven donuts, my competition, four.

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Deliberate omission of a word or of words which are readily implied by the context

Asyndeton

Veni, Vidi, Veci (I came, I saw, I conquered.)

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Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses

Polysyndeton

I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water.

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The opposite of asyndeton: the deliberate use of many conjunctions

Alliteration

"Hot-hearted Beowulf was bent upon battle"

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Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Assonance

Mad as a Hatter, Crumbling thunder, Brutal truth

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Repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words

Anaphora

"What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?"

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Deliberate repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.

Epistrophe

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

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Deliberate repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.

Epanalepsis

Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered blows:
Strength match' with strength, and power confronted power.

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Repetition at the end of a clause of the word or words that occurred at the beginning of the same clause.

Anadiplosis

The love of wicked men converts to fear,
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.

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The repetition of the last word (or phrase) from one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Chiasmus

Adam, first of men,/ To first of women, Eve

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Repetition of grammatical structures in inverted order (not to be mistaken with antimetabole, in which identical words are repeated and inverted).

Antimetabole

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

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Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.

Metaphor

No man is an island

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Implied comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as"

Simile

My love is like a red, red rose

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Explicit comparison between two unlike things often employing "like" or "as"

Synecdoche

All hands on deck.

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A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole or vice versa

Metonymy

The pen is mightier than the sword, Crown for royalty

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Reference to something or someone by naming something with which it is closely associated.

Pun

What is the difference between a conductor and a teacher? The conductor minds the train and a teacher trains the mind.

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Generic name for those figures which make a play on words, using words that are written similarly or identically, but have different meanings.

Zeugma

She took his heart and wallet.

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One verb controls two or more objects that have different syntactic and semantic relations to it.

Personification

O beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.

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Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities.

Apostrophe

"With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!"

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Addressing an absent person or a personified abstraction.

Verbal Irony

speaking in such a way as to imply the contrary of what one says, often for the purpose of derision, mockery, or jest.

Hyperbole

I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.

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Exaggeration for purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

Understatement

It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.

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Deliberately making something seem less important for ironic emphasis or polite tact.

Rhetorical question

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

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Any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks.

Onomatopoeia

The buzzing of innumerable bees

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Use of words whose sound echoes the sense.

Paradox

Art is a form of lying to tell the truth

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A contradictory statement that reveals a deeper truth

Oxymoron

The Sounds of Silence, No light, but rather darkness visible

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Placing two terms that are ordinarily contradictory adjacent to one another.