AP Lang RHETORICAL DEVICES TERM SET 4 (examples)

personification

"In that time, there was at least a system that could, to some extent, make righteousness and peace kiss each other. Now, they do not even bow." (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy) "Once again, the heart of America is heavy. The spirit of America weeps for a tragedy that denies the very meaning of our land." (Lyndon Johnson, Address to the Nation Upon Proclaiming a Day of Mourning Following the Death of Dr. King, 1968)

asyndeton

"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, 1961 Inauguration) "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender" (Winston Churchill's address popularly known as "We shall fight on the beaches," 1940)

polysyndeton

"Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly-mostly-let them have their whiteness." (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day" (Shakespeare, Macbeth)

symploce

"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes . . .." T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" "The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

epistrophe

"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans--not as Democrats or Republicans-we are met here as Americans to solve that problem." (Lyndon Johnson, Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, 1965) "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (I Corinthians 13:11)

epithet

BASIC: glossy hair, silvery leaves, hostile environment NAME: Swift-footed Achilles, Crooked Hillary, Jealous Iago TRANSFERRED: (from animate to inanimate object): malevolent night, sleepless night, ferocious sky, "the earth is crying-sweek," a "careless match"

zeugma

By the end of the school year, my patience and favorite pen were lost. It soon became clear that both his promise and my heart were broken. "He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men." (Tim O'Brien) "Where the washing is not put out, nor the fire, nor the mistress." (Thoreau)

synecdoche

Get your butt down here. Check out my new wheels. "I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." (T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock) "[The quality of the statue] Tell that its sculptor well those passions read / Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, / The hand that mocked them" (Percy Bysshe Shelley "Ozymandias") In this context, "mocked" means to create a copy. The "hand" refers to a part of the sculptor

hyperbaton

He has a look inscrutable. The sweet boy and well-behaved. We will not, on this quiz or any other, cheat. "The forest burned with a fire unquenchable" "A single swallow doth not a spring make" "...that tongue of his that bade the Romans / Mark him and write his speeches in their books." (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar) He holds him with his skinny hand, / "There was a ship," quoth he. / "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!" / Eftsoons his hand dropt he." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") "Judge me by my size, do you?" (Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back)

aporia

Look for phrases like "I don't know," "I cannot say," "I often wonder," "I'm not convinced," "I'm unaware of" "I'm unsure whether to be in favor of harsher penalties or opposed to them, as the arguments on both sides seem very strong." "I have heard that native deer populations in North America seem to be on the decline, and I don't know what to do say about that. In my experience it seems our town is inundated by these creatures."

amplification

Rhetorical device quizzes are stressful. The terms are completely new, I can't even pronounce them properly, and I could do without the added stress this time of year. "On that day, not only did the world change, but we all changed. Our eyes were opened to the depths of the evil we face. But in that hour of darkness, we also came together with renewed purpose. Our differences never looked so small, our common bonds never felt so strong." (Trump, 9/11/17)

anaphora

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, / This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings... / This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land." (John of Gault, Richard II) "We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender" (Winston Churchill's address popularly known as "We shall fight on the beaches," 1940

metonymy

Today, the White House decided to... The pen is mightier than the sword. "Like every worker everywhere, we're fighting the suits!" (The Doctor, "Oxygen", Doctor Who) The suits that business owners are associated with stand in for them "As he swung toward them holding up the hand / Half in appeal, but half as if to keep / The life from spilling" (Robert Frost, "Out, Out-") The blood spilling from the boy is referred to as "the life" because life is closely associated with blood