Tropes & Schemes
Simile (trope)
explicit comparison between two things "like" or "as" He wins all the trivia competitions because he's smart as a bag of brains.
Antithesis (scheme)
juxtaposition (placement next to one another) of opposites or contraries sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind (in parallel structure)
Cliche
overused simile or metaphor
Oxymoron (trope)
2 opposing terms adjacent to one another compressed paradox The Sounds of Silence "Cruel kindness"
Antimetabole (scheme)
AB BA We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The Rock was landed on us.
Anadiplosis (scheme)
AB:BC:CD "Suffering breeds character; character breeds faith; in the end faith will not disappoint."
Rhetorical Question (trope)
Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of making a point
Asyndeton (scheme)
Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses Check this out. So you meet this person. Boy, are they fine, kind, sensitive, loving, witty, charming, intelligent....
Litotes/Understatement (trope)
Deliberate understatement, esp. when expressing a thought by denying its opposite. I am a citizen of no mean city. Running a marathon in under two hours is no small accomplishment.
Rhyme (scheme)
Placing words near one another which sound alike
Apostrophe (trope)
addressing an absent person, an inanimate object, or an abstraction specific kind of personification "O stranger of the future!
Parallel Structure (scheme)
aligning/coordinating grammatical equivalents; arranging language so that the parts of speech balance "What one man tosses out as trash another man stores up as treasure." Preposition adjective (noun) (verb) (preposition) (preposition) (noun) Adjective (noun) (verb) (preposition) (preposition) (noun)
Metaphor (trope)
comparison between two things; may be implicit or explicit "is/are" You are a velociraptor flip out (implied tenor: become enraged)
Polysyndeton (scheme)
deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions in successive words or clauses. "Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war—not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government—not any other thing. We are the killers."
Hyperbole (trope)
deliberate use of exaggeration for emphasis I could eat a horse.
Alliteration (scheme)
grouping words together that start with the same sound "fickle finger of fate" (immediate) Bungalow Bill (immediate proximity) "it's either going to be the ballot or the bullet" (non-immediate) "One man's trash is another man's treasure" (non-immediate)
Personification (trope
investing something not human with human qualities or abilities The insatiable hunger for imagination preys upon human life
Epanalepsis (scheme)
repetition at end of clause of word that occurred at beginning of clause In the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer —I have overcome the world."
Epistrophe (scheme)
repetition of same word/group of words at ends of successive clauses. "I said you're afraid to bleed. [As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls be murdered, you haven't got no blood."
Polyptoton (scheme)
repetition of words derived from same word root What is salt worth if it has lost its saltiness? Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are. Who watches the watchmen
Anaphora (scheme)
repetition of words/group of words at beginning of successive clauses "We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community."
Paradox (trope)
self-contradictory statement on surface, but evokes truth Whosoever loses his life, shall find it.
Metonymy (trope)
substitute actual name of something for name of something closely associated Referring to youth as the "cradle" and death as the "grave"
