Rhetorical Devices I. Figures of speech based on similarity a. Similie b. Metaphor c. Allegory d. Parable e.

Fable

II.

Figures of speech based on Association a. Synecdoche b. Hypallage c. Allusion

III.

Figures of speech based on difference a. Antithesis b. Epigram c. Climax d. Anti-climax

IV.

Figures of speech based on imagination a. Personification b. Apostrophe c. Hyperbole

V.

Figures of speech based on indirectness a. Innuendo b. Irony c. Euphemism

VI.

Figures of speech based on sound a. Onomatopoeia b. Alliteration c. Assonance d. Consonance

VII.

Figures of speech based on construction (of sentences) a. Interrogation b. Exclamation c. Chiasmus d. Zeugma

Rhetorical devices based on similarity Similie o an explicit statement of the similarity existing between two different things two different things resemblance distinctly stated like, as

The child shows the man, as morning shows the day Milton This city now doth like a grament wear The beauty of the morning, silent, bare. Wordsworth Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till by broad spreading, it disperse to nought Shakespeare As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean Coleridge The Champak odours fall Like sweet thoughts in a dream Shelley

Eg. of comparison Kings are like stars they rise and set they have the worship of the world, out of no repose Shelley Poetry produces an illusion on the eye of the mind, as a magic lantern produces an illusion on the eye of the body. And as the magic lantern acts best in a dark room, poetry effects its purpose most completely in a dark age. Macaulay

Metaphor (meta = beyond, phera = I carry) o An implicit or implied comparison between two very dissimilar things o suggests the discovery of an alliance between two things belonging to completely different walks of life

Eg.

I must get to the bottom of this matter. Ill drink life to the lees Tennyson Honest ministers are the pillars of the state. The Lord is my rock and my fotress To take up arms against a sea of troubles Shakespeare I bridle in my struggling Muse with pain That longs to launch into bolder strain

The ship ploughed the sea Thy word is a lamp unto my feet Camels are the ships of the desert

As the plough turns up the land, so the ship acts on the sea As a lamp guides a travellers footsteps, so thy word guides my steps in the dark world Just as ships carry people over the sea, so the camels carry people through deserts

Allegroy A strategy of extending a metaphor through an entire narrative so that objects, persons, and actions in the text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning o Eg. John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress o George Orwells Animal Farm o Spencers Fairie Queene

Parable An allegorical story intended to enforce some high moral or religious lesson a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison or analogy story and its meaning lie side by side

Fable a short fictitious story with a moral, but it is not always allegorical like a parable. Eg, Aesops Fables, Panchatantra

II. Rhetorical devices based on association Metonymy (meta = change, onoma = name) Consists of substituting the name of one thing for that of another, to which it has a certain resemblance One thing is substituted for the other on the basis of close association with one another.

Substitution of sign for the thing o Eg. o He ascended the throne. o He is fond of red-tapeism. o The advocate will soon be raised to the bench. Substitution of the instrument or organ for the agent who uses it The press weilds great power. A thousand rifles. The pen is mightier than the sword. Another statue of the same chisel is worthy of notice.

Substitution of the effect for the cause, or the cause for the effect o o o o The cat is basking in the sun. Yet oft a sigh prevails, and sorrows fall. Goldsmith To bring our grey hair with sorrow to the grave Tennyson Swiftly flies the feathered death.

Substitution of the container for the thing contained o He drank the fatal cup o The hall was up in a roar of laughter. o The entire city rose up in arms. o He keeps a good table for his guests. o Do not be addicted to bottles.

Substitution of the maker for his/her work o Classical themes are common in Milton. o Students of mathematics study Pythagoras. o All Arabia breathes from yonder box.

Synecdoche A more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive term or vice versa i) Substitution of a part for the whole A fleet of twenty sails. A man bowed down with seventy winters. There are 15 hands in the office. There are twentyfive heads in the auditorium. ii) Substitution of the whole for the part Dust thou art, to dust returnest. Birds chirp sweetly in the smiling year. The lavish moisture of the falling year. The falling year brings sad thoughts to mind.