Figures of Speech

Ben, Sterling, Selasi

Figures of Speech (Schemes)

• Changes in the standard order or usual syntax of words to create special effects

• Describes a smaller category of rhetorical figures, including: apostrophe, rhetorical question, anaphora, and chiasmus

Apostrophe

• address to a dead or absent person or an inanimate object or abstract idea

• not used to solicit a response, but to elevate style and feed into the intensity of the emotion

• Ex) Romeo and Juliet o Come, civil night,

Thou sober suited matron all in black,

And learn me how to lose a winning match,

Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods

Invocation

• special form of an apostrophe

• occurs when the poet addresses an appeal to a muse or god to inspire creative endeavors

• Ex) The Odyssey o Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story

of that man skilled in all ways of fighting,

the wanderer, troubled for years on end,

after he robbed the stronghold

on the proud height of Troy

Rhetorical Question

• Not to elicit a response, but to emphasize a foregone or clearly implied conclusiono Goal: Create stronger effect than direct assertion

• Ex) “Are you crazy?” - Not a question that must be answered, but drives a point and has more emphasis than “You’re crazy.”

Anaphora (From greek “Repetition”)

• Intentional repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines, stanzas, sentences, or paragraphs

• Often used to create emphasis, but can differ with context

• Ex) “Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them, / Cannon in front of them / Volleyed and thundered”-The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson. Suggests speed and tension of a fatal battle using anaphora.

Antithesis (From greek “opposition”)

• Words or phrases that are parallel in order and syntax, but express opposite or contrasting meanings.

• Ex) Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities begins with a long series of antitheses shows the contrast of grandeur and despair present in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness…”

Chiasmus (from the greek “criss cross”)

• Occurs when two successive phrases are parallel in syntax

• Ex) Robert Frost’s “The Gift Outright”o “The land was ours before we were the land’s”

• Ex) Lord Byron’s Don Juan o “Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.”