Elements of Eloquence

Congeries

A bewildering list of descriptive phrases. e.g. "The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself..."

Minor sentence

A grammatically incomplete sentence. E.g. "Better late than never."

Periodic Sentence

A sentence incomplete until the last clause/phrase (ie. because the main clause is left until the end). e.g. "Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you."

Isocolon

A sentence is composed by multiple parts equivalent in structure, length and rhythm. e.g. "Roses are red, Violets are blue..."

Tricolon

A sentence is composed of three equal parts. A list of three. e.g. "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Zeugma

A single word used to 'yoke' or join together two words that are not appropriate to each other. e.g. "She left the building and her job." "I took my hat and a taxi."

Bathos

A sudden descent from the lofty, noble or sublime to the ridiculous and trivial. e.g. "I will give you my heart, my life, my love and my sandwich."

Metonymy

A thing called not by its own name but by the name of something associated with it. e.g. "Downing Street" = government "Fleet Street" = newspapers/journalists

Transferred Epithet

An adjective applied to the wrong noun for effect. e.g. "He smoked a nervous cigarette." "Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time..."

Diacope

Close repetition of a word or phrase separated by a word or words. e.g. "To be or not to be..." "My name's Bond. James Bond." "Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!."

Oxymoron

Combining words in a contradictory way. e.g. "I am a deeply superficial person."

Litotes

Emphasises a point by denying the opposite. Useful for creating understatement. e.g. "I wouldn't say no." George Orwell mocking litotes: "A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field."

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for effect. e.g. "As to forming any plan for the future, I could as soon have formed an elephant." (Great Expectations)

Pathetic Fallacy

Giving human qualities and emotions to aspects of nature. e.g. "I wandered lonely as a cloud." "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon."

Synaesthesia

One sense described in terms of another. e.g. "Music that stinks to the ear.'

Epizeuxis

Repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession. e.g. "O horror, horror, horror." "Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!" "Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; what's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed."

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word of a sentence/clause at the start of the next. e.g. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Parataxis

Short, simple sentences. e.g. "Hell is murky."

Anaphora

Starting each sentence (or clause) with the same words. e.g. "A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones..."

Antithesis

The use of two opposites for contrasting effect. e.g. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Polysyndeton

Using several conjunctions (esp. 'and') in close succession. (The opposite is called asyndeton) "A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin."

Hypotaxis

Writing with a large number of subordinate clauses. e.g. "When the church came to itself - for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet - when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously."