Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several words in a sequence.
Let us go forth to lead the land we love. (JFK)
Veni, vidi, vici. (J. Caesar)
Amplification (copia): A restatement of an idea or object through repetition and detail.
No, my good lord: Banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's company. Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world! (Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV)
Anaphora (repetitio): the same word repeated at the beginning of a sequence of clauses or sentences.
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. (Winston Churchill)
The Lord is my shepherd . . . . He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. (Psalm 23)
Antanaclasis: repeating a word while shifting from one of its meanings to another.
Of touch [n. glossy black stone] they are that without touch [v. contact] do touch [v. affect with emotion],
Which Cupid's selfe from Beautie's myne did draw:
Of touch [n. touchwood (tinder)] they are, and poore I am their straw. (Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 9)
Antithesis: contraries are opposed and distinguished.
Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. (Barry Goldwater)
Apostrophe: a turning of speech from one topic or person to another.
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him. (Shakespeare)
Asyndeton: absence of connecting particles between clauses.
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. (J. F. Kennedy)
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. (A. Lincoln)
Chiasmus: repeating ideas or words in inverted order, i.e., two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels (a-b-a-b) but in inverted order (a-b-b-a); from the shape of the Greek letter c [chi].
Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. (Samuel Johnson)
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. (JFK)
Climax (gradatio): the last word of one clause or sentence becomes the first of the following, continued through three or more stages.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain. . . . (Shakespeare)
Epistrophe (conversio): the same word is repeated at the end of a sequence of clauses or sentences.
Is this nothing?
Why then the world and all that's in't is nothing,
My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing. (Shakespeare)
Hyperbole (superlatio): exaggeration of scale used to emphasize outstanding qualities.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thine forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast
But thirty thousand to the rest (Marvell)
Litotes: understatement, for intensification, by denying the contrary of the thing being affirmed.
A few unannounced quizzes are not inconceivable.
War is not healthy for children and other living things.
One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.
Metaphor: implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words.
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. (Shakespeare)
Metonymy: substitution of one word for another which it suggests.
These are bad times for the House [= family] of Windsor.
Mercy and truth preserve the crown [= monarch, monarcy]. (Bracton)
Paronomasia: use of similar sounding words; often etymological word-play.
Thou art Peter [Petros], and upon this rock [petra] I shall build my church. (Matthew 16)
Polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses.
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 Bay and she was all right only she was full of water. (Hemingway)
Synecdoche: Understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part.
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers [= two more years] wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride
(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
Note: This list takes some of its examples and definitions from the
appendix in Brian Vickers's Classical Rhetoric in English Poetry
(2nd ed., 1989) and In Defence of Rhetoric (Oxford, 1988),
Richard Lanham's Handlist of Rhetorical Terms (Berkeley, 1991),
Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie (London, 1589), and Henry Peacham's
Garden
of Eloquence (London, 1593)--I urge you to consult these works (especially
Lanham) for more complete listings of rhetorical figures. See also: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm.