Rhetorical devices – Flashcards

Repetition of an initial consonant sound "..brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front" (Ronal Reagan)

Repetition of an initial vowel sound: "As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives, Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, Every cat had seven kittens: kittens, cats, sacks and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?" (Jeremy Irons, in Die Hard with a Vengeance - from the riddle poem As I was going to St. Ives)

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several clauses "To raise a happy, healthy and hopeful child, it takes a family, it takes teachers, it takes clergy, it takes business people, it takes community leaders;.... (Hillary Clinton)

Contrast emphasized by a parallel in the grammatical structure "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools" (Martin Luther King)

Repetition of a word or phrase or a phrase at the end of a several clauses "The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come." (Nelson Mandela)

Comparison - often implicit - of seemingly unrelated subjects. X IS Y. "At the dawn of spring last year, a single act of terror brought forth the long, cold winter of our hearts" (Al Gore)

A thing or an abstract idea is given human traits and qualities. "The spirit of America weeps for a tragedy that denies the vey meaning of our land" (Lyndon B. Johnson)

A question that is not meant to be answered, the answer is obvious. "Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, "Well done?" (Ronald Reagan)

An explicit comparison of seemingly unrelated subjects. X is LIKE Y. My love is like a red, red rose (Robert Burns)

A series of three words, phrases, or clauses that are parallel in structure, meaning etc. "I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically" (Captain Jack Sparrow)

Two words with contrary or apparently contradictory meanings occurring next to each other, and, which, nonetheless, evoke some measure of truth; the figure conjures a new way of seeing or understanding, a novel meaning. "You know, this moment right here, it's - it's unbelievably believable. You know, it's unbelievable because in the moment, we're all amazed when great things happen. But it's believable because, you know, great things don't happen without hard work." (Robert Griffin III)

Successive words, phrases, clauses with the same or very similar grammatical structure. Anaphora, epiphora, tricolon are examples of particular kinds of parallellism. "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." (John F. Kennedy)

A word or phrase that carries both literal and figurative meaning. While metaphors are comparisons between two seemingly dissimilar things, the literal meaning of a symbol makes us associate further, often to abstract ideas. A metaphor would be "His life is an oak tree that has lost its leaves" - a comparison that creates images in our heads of something bare. A symbol would then be the Oak tree itself as an image which makes us associate further to age, death, the circle of life. A conventional, well-known symbol is the cross as a symbol of Christianity.