Additional Rhetorical Terms

antimetabole (also called epanados)—repeating a phrase in the opposite order

But that your trespass now becomes a fee;

Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me. (Sonnet 120, Shakespeare)

chiasmus—a crossing, similar to antimetabole but longer

Farewell farewell Eden—

Thou art lost and far.

We who used to lord thee,

Stretch our hands toward thee

As thou wert a star.

Farewell, farewell, Eden. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

epistrophe—repeating the same word or phrase at the end of two or more clauses or lines

Who made him cheap at Rome, but Cleopatra?

Who made him scorned abroad, but Clepatra?

At Actium, who betrayed him? Cleopatra.

Who made his children orphans, and poor me

A wretched widow? only Cleopatra. (All for Love, John Dryden)

anastrophe—turning natural word order around (see the periphrasis example below)

euphemism—covering up something negative by using pleasant words (He passed away.)

litotes—understatement

Cousin, of many men

I do not bear these crossings. (Henry IV, Part 1, 3.1.33-34)

oxymoron—two words juxtaposed that are opposites

O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face!

Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!

Dove-feather’d raven! Wolvish-ravening lamb!

Despised substance of divinest show! . . . (Romeo and Juliet, 3.2.73-85)

tautology—saying the same thing again but in different words

Give, you gods,

Give to your boy, your Cæsar,

This rattle of a globe to play withal,

This gewgaw world. . . . (All for Love, John Dryden)

periphrasis—wordily going round and round the subject

See you now,

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;

And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,

With windlasses and with assays of bias,

By indirections find directions out.

So by my former lecture and advice

Shall you my son. (Hamlet, 2.1.59-65)

apostrophe—speaking to someone or something not there (may be an abstraction)

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. . . . (John Donne)

antonomasia—substituting a proper name for a general idea

Peace, peace, my lover’s Juno.” All for Love, John Dryden

catechresis—using a substitute word that initially seems inappropriate

Well, I am school’d. (Henry IV, Part 1, 3.1.184)

enallage—using the wrong grammatical form but having it work well

This was the most unkindest cut of all. . . . (Julius Caesar 3.2.182)

syllepsis—using a word, usually a verb, in two senses, usually makes a pun

FALSTAFF: Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

PRINCE: No; thou shalt. (Henry IV, Part 1, 1.2.60-61)

zeugma—leaving out the verb the second time in parallel clauses

Art thou living?

Or am I dead before I knew, and thou

The first kind ghost that meets me? (All for Love, John Dryden)

ellipsis—obviously leaving out a word (See the above quotation)

He’s somewhat lewd; but a well-meaning mind;

Weeps much; fights little; but is wondrous kind. (John Dryden)

stichomythia—an extended dialogue in which the speakers take turns of a line or two and pick up words or ideas from each other which they repeat.

DOLA. No, madam; yet he sent me—

CLEO. Well, he sent you—

DOLA. Of a less pleasing errand.

CLEO. How less pleasing?

Less to yourself, or me? . . . . . . . . . (All for Love, 4.1.114-45)

pun—a play on words

FALSTAFF: Yea, and so us’d it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent— (Henry IV, Part 1, 1.2.56-57)

paradox—an apparent contradiction that is really true

Batter my heart, three-personed God. . . .

Take me to You, imprison me, for I

Except You enthrall me, never shall be free;

Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.