ELEMENTS OF STYLE : ELEMENTS OF STYLE Figures of Speech
Literary Techniques
FIGURES OF SPEECH : FIGURES OF SPEECH Def- expressions that stretch words beyond their literal meanings.
By connecting or juxtaposing different sounds and thoughts, figures of speech increase the breadth and subtlety of expression
Juxtaposition-The state of being placed or situated side by side
Breadth-An effect of unified, encompassing vision in an artistic composition
ALLITERATION : ALLITERATION Def-Repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants at the beginning of words.
Example: Robert Frost’s “Out, Out” This poem contains an alliterative phrase
Can you identify it in the poem?
Robert Frost’s “Out, Out- -” : Robert Frost’s “Out, Out- -” 'OUT, OUT--'
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yardAnd made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.And from there those that lifted eyes could countFive mountain ranges one behind the otherUnder the sunset far into Vermont.And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,As it ran light, or had to bear a load.And nothing happened: day was all but done.Call it a day, I wish they might have saidTo please the boy by giving him the half hourThat a boy counts so much when saved from work.His sister stood beside them in her apronTo tell them 'Supper'. At the word, the saw,As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap--
“sweet-scented stuff”“saw snarled” : “sweet-scented stuff”“saw snarled” He must have given the hand. However it was,Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh.As he swung toward them holding up the handHalf in appeal, but half as if to keepThe life from spilling. Then the boy saw all--Since he was old enough to know, big boyDoing a man's work, though a child at heart--He saw all spoiled. 'Don't let him cut my hand offThe doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!'So. But the hand was gone already.The doctor put him in the dark of ether.He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.And then -- the watcher at his pulse took fright.No one believed. They listened at his heart.Little -- less -- nothing! -- and that ended it.No more to build on there. And they, since theyWere not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
APOSIOPESIS : APOSIOPESIS Def- A breaking off of speech, usually because of rising emotion or excitement
Originally used in Classical Greek language: Becoming silent A sudden breaking off of a thought in the middle of a sentence, as though the speaker were unwilling or unable to continue.
Example: “Touch me one more time and I swear I’ll…..”
APOSTROPHE : APOSTROPHE Def- A direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea.
EX: Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain” (from Leaves of Grass written in the 1800’s) What do you think has taken place in this poem.
Is the captain referred to a literal captain?
Who do you think the writer is referring to as his captain.
Walt Whitman’s, “O Captain, My Captain” : Walt Whitman’s, “O Captain, My Captain” O Captain! My Captain!
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Would you be surprised to know that this poem was written about the death of Abraham Lincoln.Was Lincoln a sailor? Did he die on a ship? : Would you be surprised to know that this poem was written about the death of Abraham Lincoln.Was Lincoln a sailor? Did he die on a ship? Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
ASSONANCE : ASSONANCE Def- The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words.
Ex: Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s, “The Lotos-Eaters” Which excerpt is an example of assonance
What vowel does Tennyson create assonance with in this poem?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters” : Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters” Excerpt 1:
Courage!’ he said, and pointed toward the land,‘This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.’In the afternoon they came unto a landIn which it seemed always afternoon.All round the coast the languid air did swoon,Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.Full-faced above the valley stood the moon;And like a downward smoke, the slender streamAlong the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.
Excerpt 2:
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:The Lotos blows by every winding creek:All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone:Thro’ every hollow cave and alley lone low mellower tone
“The Lotos-Eaters” Vocabulary Defined : “The Lotos-Eaters” Vocabulary Defined Copse- (kops)
A thicket of small trees or shrubs; a coppice
Languid-
drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion (weak); sluggish in character or disposition (listless); lacking force or quickness of movement (slow)
Up-clomb- (klOme)
A past tense and a past participle of climb
Dale- A valley: galloped over hill and dale, an open river valley (in a hilly area)
Vale- A valley, often coursed by a stream (a dale); Used to express leave-taking or farewell; long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river
Galingale- a plant
CACOPHONY : CACOPHONY Def- The clash of discordant or harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase.
Synonymous with literary dissonance (not to be confused with musical dissonance)
Present in tongue-twisters, but can also be used poetically for emphasis. EX: Shakespeare Sonnet #129: “…Is perjured, murderous, bloody…”
EX: John Updike’s, “Player Piano”
What words express cacophony in this poem
John Updike’s, “Player Piano” : John Updike’s, “Player Piano” Player Piano
My stick fingers click with a snicker
And, chuckling, they knuckle the keys;
Light footed, my steel feelers flicker
And pluck form these keys melodies
My paper can caper; abandon
Is broadcast by dint of my din
And no man or band has a hand in
The tones I turn on from within
At times I’m a jumble of rumbles,
At others I’m light like the moon,
But never my numb plunker fumbles,
Misstrums me, or tries a new tune
“The Player Piano”vocabulary defined : “The Player Piano”vocabulary defined Dint-
Force or effort; power: succeeded by dint of hard work.
A dent
Din-
A jumble of loud, usually discordant sounds.
CHIASMUS : CHIASMUS Pronunciation- kI-az-muss
Def- Two phrases in which the syntax is the same but the placement of words is reversed in order to make a larger point Ex: Shakespeare, Othello 3.3:
But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strong loves. —Dotes and strong loves share the same meaning and bracket doubts and suspects.
Identifying Chiasmus : Identifying Chiasmus Mark it with an X
This is one of the most simple forms of chiasmus
The famous line of May West:
“It’s not the men in my life,
it’s the life in my men.”
Other examples:
“Home is where the great are small
and the small are great.”
Identifying Chiasmus Continued… : Identifying Chiasmus Continued… The ABBA Method
If you can assign A and B to the first time the key words appear and A’ and B’ to the second time they appear they are following the ABBA method
A It’s not the men
B in my life
B’ it’s the life
A’ in my men
Another example:
How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising
that past age
which our fathers abused,
and as constantly abusing
that present age
which our children will praise
Can you identify the ABBA pattern here?
It’s important to understand that these are simple examples and that the ABBA pattern can be found in larger works throughout an entire piece.
Identifying Chiasmus Continued… : Identifying Chiasmus Continued… Reversing more than just words
Phrase reversal
Alfred P. Sloan:
“Some have an idea that the reason we in this country
discard things so readily is because we have so much.
The facts are exactly opposite-- the reason
we have so much is simply because we discard things so readily.”
Letter reversal
Anonymous:
“A magician is a person who pulls rabbits out of hats.
An experimental psychologists is a person who pulls habits out of rats.”
Sound reversal
Edwardian Toast
“Here’s champagne for our real friends
and real pain for our sham friends.” What reversal do you find in the following statement? I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like,
And I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
CLICHE : CLICHE An expression or phrase that has been used so long that it has lost its expressive power
There are dozens of examples of this:
Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There's no place like home
A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.
“turn over a new leaf”
Any friend of yours is a friend of mine
COLLOQUIALISM : COLLOQUIALISM Def- An informal expression or slang, especially in the context of formal writing
characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-room Ballads:When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyreHe'd 'eard men sing by land and sea;An' what he thought 'e might require'E went an' took — the same as me!
Colloquialism Continued…When Writing : Colloquialism Continued…When Writing Colloquial means relating to the sort of language used in everyday informal conversation. Colloquialisms can be used in direct speech, i.e., what people say, in your story. They should not be used in the text itself unless you are writing from a particular character's point of view and using that character's style of speech. Colloquial speech also includes swear-words and rude words.
Here are a few examples:
gimme = give me
outta or outa = out of
G'day = Good day (a greeting in Australia)
ratbag = rascal, rogue, unpleasant person
yeah = yes
kid = child or teenager (it means 'young deer', so it's a compliment)
seconds = the second helping of something at a meal
CONCEIT : CONCEIT An elaborate parallel between two seemingly dissimilar objects or ideas.
Ex: John Donne's "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,"
"Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, / The Intelligence that moves, devotion is."
How does the comparison of a sphere and man’s soul assist you in understanding what the author is trying to convey?
Can you think of any other examples of conceit?
(movies, every day life, novels, etc..)
Conceit Continued… : Conceit Continued… In literary terms, a conceit is a device used in order to make a story more accessible to the audience.
A simple example of this is the film Speed.
In Speed, Sandra Bullocks character is a workaholic that can not slow her life down. She is also stuck on a bus that she can not slow down (or it will explode). Since the audience, obviously, has never been in such a bus, the film-goers can not directly sympathize with the protagonist (Bullock's character).
The conceit, however, enables the audience to do so because most people have had a job, friend, lover or hobby that he or she has become obsessive or otherwise spent too much time on. As the audience has struggled with a too-fast life, so can they sympathize with a character stuck on a too-fast bus.
Taken from the internet: www.fact-index.com/c/co/conceit.html
EPITHET : EPITHET Def- an adjective or phrase that describes a prominent feature of a person or thing.
A word which makes the reader see the object described in a clearer or sharper light.
It is both exact and imaginative. Ex’s-
The Odyssey: wine-dark sea...... wave-girdled island," blindfolding night.
Our national flag is a star- spangled banner
Bryant's, "Thanatopsis" (the ocean's) "gray and melancholy waste."
Browning’s, Home Thoughts from Abroad: the "gaudy" melon flower and the "wise" thrush
A. E. Housman's, "Bredon Hill" : A. E. Housman's, "Bredon Hill" Here of a Sunday morningMy love and I would lie, And see the colored counties,And hear the larks so highAbout us in the sky. Can you identify the epithet used in this poem.
Epithet Continued… : Epithet Continued… Epithet can also be used to describe characteristics of people:
“Richard the Lionheart”
“Shoeless’ Joe Jackson”
“Alexander the Great”
EUPHEMISM : EUPHEMISM Def- the use of decorous language to express vulgar or unpleasant ideas, events, or actions.
Often used in politics where it is commonly known as talking out of “both sides of your mouth” Ex:“passed away” instead of ‘died
Ex:“ethnic cleansing” instead of genocide
Can you thing of any other euphemism’s?
EUPHONY : EUPHONY Def- a pleasing arrangement of sounds.
Attempting to group words together harmoniously, so that the consonants permit an easy and pleasing flow of sound when spoken
From Greek word for “good sound” John Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes (1820):
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;Manna and dates, in argosy transferredFrom Fez; and spiced dainties, every oneFrom silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon.
HYPERBOLE : HYPERBOLE Def-An excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact
An exaggerated statement used for effect and not meant to be taken literally.
Ex: Waves high as mountains broke over the reef.
Ex: I had to wait an eternity for the file to download. Act 2, scene 2 of Shakespeare's "Macbeth”:
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
IDIOM : IDIOM Def- A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs from its literal meaning
Dialect (Greek trans.)
Ex:“it’s raining cats and dogs”
Ex: “Over the Hill” These sayings are usually culturally based and would make no sense to non-American people.
Spanish Ex:
“Me gustan los arboles”=
“I like the trees”, but if we
pull it apart and read it
word for word=
“To me pleases the trees”
LITOTES : LITOTES Pronunciation:Lie-ta-tees or Lie-toe-tees
Def- a form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its opposite: “He is not unfriendly”
Idea is expressed by denial of its opposite (not unlike…) Form of Meiosis (understatement)
EX:J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain”
MEIOSIS : MEIOSIS Def- intentional understatement
Opposite of hyperbole (excess. overst.)
Often employs litotes for ironic effect (not unlike..) EX: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Mercutio is mortally wounded and says it is only a “scratch.”
Ex: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Said of an amputated leg.: "It's just a flesh wound"
METAPHOR : METAPHOR Def-the comparison of one thing to another that does not use the terms “like” or “as”
Mixed Metaphor- combo of metaphors that produce a confused or contradictory image:
“The companies collapse left mountains of debt in its wake.” Shakespeare’s ‘Life is but a stage’ speech in Macbeth is a famous example of metaphor:
“Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage”
METONYMY : METONYMY Def- the substitution of one term of r another that generally is associated with it
Ex’s:
“suits” instead of “businessmen”.
“the man” instead of the boss, leader, corporation
"Buckingham Palace" or "the crown" to refer to the royal family "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat“
-replaces the statement, “I have everything to offer” (Churchill) What else could this be a use of???? meiosis
ONOMATOPOEIA : ONOMATOPOEIA Pronunciation:
ahn-uh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh
Def- invention of new words or use of existing words that in some way imitate the sound of what they refer to
Using or inventing a word whose sound imitates that which it names (the union of phonetics and semantics). Ex-The buzzing of innumerable beesThe "zz" and "mm" sounds in these words imitate the actual sounds of bees.
Milton does this when describing a hive of bees:
"brushed with the hiss of rustling wings"
Out of the whinnying green stableOn to the fields of praise.— Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas
OXYMORON : OXYMORON Def- the association of two contrary terms
Examples:
Same difference
Wise fool
Dodge Ram
Genuine imitation
Jumbo shrimp Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!O heavy lightness, serious vanity;Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Romeo, Act 1, scene 1William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
PARADOX : PARADOX Def- statement that seems absurd or even contradictory on its face but often expresses a deeper truth
Ex: “All men kill the thing they love”
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar : "Cowards die many times before their deaths" Biblical concept of the upside down kingdom
The last shall be first
If you lose your life, you will find it
The greatest among you
will be the servant
Ex: "without laws, we can have no freedom."
Can you think of any other examples?
PARALIPSIS : PARALIPSIS AKA- praeteritio
Def- technique of drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it. Ex- Melville’s Moby- Dick:
“We will not speak of all Queequeg’s peculiarities here; how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare.”
PARALLELISM : PARALLELISM Def- use of similar grammatical structures or word order in two sentences or phrases to suggest a comparison or contrast between them. Ex- Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129:
“Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.”
Sometimes refers to parallels between larger elements in a narrative.
PATHETIC FALLACY : PATHETIC FALLACY Def- the attribution of human feeling or motivation to a nonhuman object, especially an object found in nature. Ex-
In his “Ode to Melancholy,” John Keats's describes a “weeping cloud”
PERIPHRASIS : PERIPHRASIS Def- an elaborate and roundabout manner of speech that uses more words than necessary
Euphemisms often employ paraphrases. Ex-
Saying:
“I appear to be entirely without financial resources”
Instead of:
“I’m broke”
PERSONIFICATION : PERSONIFICATION Def- the use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas. In Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” he describes the city as “Stormy, husky, brawling…city of the big shoulders”
PUN : PUN A play on words that exploits the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different meanings. Can you think of any examples of this.
We usually notice we have used this and say, “pardon the pun,” or “no pun intended.”
RHETORICAL QUESTION : RHETORICAL QUESTION A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to make an impact or call attention to something.
Ex- “Isn’t she great?”
Expression of regard for another person but does not actually reply a response
SARCASM : SARCASM The opposite of what is being said is made clear by tone and context.
Often expresses scorn
Form of verbal irony Ex- Saying, “That was graceful” when someone falls.
SIMILE : SIMILE Def- a comparison of two things through the use of “like” or “as”
Ex- The title of Robert Burn’s Poem, “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”
SYNAESTHESIA : SYNAESTHESIA Def- the use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another
Ex- “Heard of melodies are sweet”: John Keats's, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Hearing and taste
SYNECDOCHE : SYNECDOCHE A part of an entity is used to describe another
A form of metonymy
Ex- calling a car “my wheels”
TROPE : TROPE Def- a category of figures of speech that extend the literal meanings of words by inviting a comparison to other words, things, or ideas.
3 Common tropes:
Metaphor
Metonymy
simile
ZEUGMA : ZEUGMA Def- the use of one word in a sentence to modify two other words in the sentence, typically in two different ways. Charles Dickens’s, The Pickwick Papers
“Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave”
The word “took” means two different things.