Kinds of verse
Feet: Iamb — te-TUM Trochee — TUMty Anapaest — te-te-TUM Dactly — TUM-te-ty
Meter: Pentameter — five in a row Tetrameter — four in a row Trimeter — three in a row
These are a select few figures of rhetoric, as outlined in The Elements of Eloquence. Every figure is named, described and an example is given.
Alliteration Using two words that start with the same letter
A hungry hippo takes a blissful bath
Polyptoton The repeated use of one word as different parts of speech, or in different grammatical form
Nothing you can do that can’t be done Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Antithesis X is Y, and not X is not Y. First you mention one thing: then you mention another
Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear
Merism When instead of mentioning one thing, all its parts are named.
Ladies and gentlemen, is a merism for people
Blazon A merism taken too far, where the thing being described is a human
Her yellow locks exceed the beaten gold Her sparkling eyes in heav’n a place deserve
Synaesthesia One sense is described in terms of another
She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight
Aposiopesis The use of the …
Aposiopesis is when …
Hyperbaton When words are put in the wrong order, which is very hard to do in English
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown
Anadiplosis The repetition of the last word of one clause as the first word of the next
The love of wicked men converts to fear; That fear to hate, and hate turns to one or both To worthy danger and deserved death
Periodic Sentence A large sentence that is not complete until the end
The entirety of Rudyard Kipling’s If
Parataxis and Hypotaxis Parataxis is short sentences. Hypotaxis is sentences that are intricate games, filled with fine flourishes and curious convolutions. Hypotaxis makes things sound wise and thought through.
Diacope A word or phrase is repeated after a brief interruption
Bond. James Bond
Rhetorical Questions There are many definitions for a rhetorical questions. But it’s just a question in the flow of prose. Shall I give an example?
There you go
Hendiadys Take an adjective and a noun, and change the adjective into another noun.
I’m going to the noise and the city (I’m going to the noise city)
Epistrophe When every sentence is ended with the same word
Government of the people, by the people, for the people
Tricolon Establish a pattern and break it
I came; I saw; I conquered
Epizeuxis Repeating a word immediately in exactly the same sense
Simple. Simple. Simple
Syllepsis One word used in two or more incongruous way
Took a highball, his hat, his coat, his departure, no notice of his friends, a taxi, a pistol from his pocket and finally his life
Isocolon Two clauses that are grammatically parallel, two sentences that are structurally the same
Roses are red. Violets are blue.
Enallage Enallage is a deliberate grammatical mistake
Let us go then, you and I,
Zeugma A series where clauses could all have the same verb, but only one is used
For contemplation he and valour formed For softness she and sweet attractive grace He for God only, she for God in him
Paradox Simple thoughts expressed in a surprising way
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
Chiasmus The words of the first half are mirrored in the second
Tea for two and two for tea Me for you and you for me
Assonance Repeating a vowel sound
deep heat or blue moon
Fourteenth Rule Using numbers to signal significance
Four times fifty living men
Catachresis When a sentence is so startingly wrong that it’s right
Speak daggers to her
Litotes Affirming something by denying its opposite
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note (infer silence)
Metonymy and Synecdoche Metanym is when two things are connected because they are really physically connected
Downing Street was left red-faced last night
Transferred Epithets When an adjective is applied to the wrong noun
The nervous man smoked a cigarette The man smoked a nervous cigarette
Pleonasm The use of unneeded words that are unnecessary in a sentence
Gathered together
Epanalepsis Starting and ending with the same phrase
The king is gone; long live the king
Personification Giving human qualities to non-human things
Personification is a strange woman, she takes over the whole story
Hyperbole The technical term for exaggeration
Yegor has all the potatoes in the world, except maybe a few left over for general circulation
Adynaton Something that is impossible
Pigs will fly
Prolepsis Using a pronoun before saying what it refers to
It’s perfectly natural, prolepsis
Congeries A list of things
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…
Scesis Onomaton Used for setting scenes, no verb.
Space: the final frontier.
Anaphora Starting each sentence with the same words
We shall fight in France We shall fight on the seas and oceans
Other Related Meanderings: