Literary Devices - Figures of Rhetoric in Literature

by TIAGO CAGLIARI

1. Introduction.?

In our childhood, we used to read phrases such as:?

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail (Cassius Longinus).?

Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise.? He that lives upon hope will die fasting. (Benjamin Franklin in ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’, in 1735).?

And the most memorable, eternalised by Shakespeare in his play The Tragedy of Hamlet:?

To be, or not to be: that is the question.’?

You certainly noticed some peculiarity in these phrasings; they are uncanny but remarkable. But why??

Their authors used common words (which could rank them as Plain English), but they mutually share the fantastic orderings and lucent locution. These wondrous phrases are rhetorical schemes which use literary devices to twist the prosaic form of language, to resound in the ears of those who listen to them, to electrify in the eyes of those who read them, to effectuate an ecstatic effect in the mind.??

There is a manifold of literary devices, each serving specific purposes. They are unique techniques that allow an orator or a writer to convey a deeper meaning that transcends the lines on the page. You may find them in narration, plot and characterization, which elevates the story and prompts existential and sociological reflections.?

This article explores how the wordsmith designs exquisite phrases with the masterful use of language, creating emphasis and effect that affects and emphasises deeply the meaning.??

Before analysing the principal devices found in literature, some vital linguistic concepts should be rudimentarily explored. The devices hereon studied will be summarily explained where (for the sake of comprehension and conciseness): ‘Literary devices’ is a generic term that refers to rhetorical devices and stylistic devices used to formulate figurative language, the language that creates a meaning different from its literal sense. All techniques employed by the writer to enhance the text, in general, are called ‘devices’, tools used for writing, and ‘rhetoric’ (the art of persuasion) refers to the speech or writing that intends to emphasise and enhance the meaning of the words.?

2. The shape of language.?

Linguistics is the study of human speech and writing including the units, nature, structure and modification of language. Stylistics is the study of style and methods used in written language. Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence; it’s the set of rules and conventions to establish the natural word order within a phrase, the phrases within a clause, the clauses within a sentence and sentences to form a paragraph. Typical word order is what is normally expected, which, in declarative sentences, is subject, verb and predicate – S + V + P. (predicate is the part of a clause that expresses what is said of the subject, usually consisting of a verb with or without objects, complements or adverbial modifiers).?

2.1. The oral and written methods.??

Language is used to convey a message originating from introspections, and within this communicative system, speech is defined as the oral expression of language and writing as its physical representation. They are the organic personification of thoughts and ideas used to express an emotion, to show a feeling, to impart knowledge, as a mere way to communicate but also as an abstract art representing material concepts.?

2.1.1 The oratory.?

Before the first poets, poetry had been orally used to inform, entertain and testify events. It was inspired by its musical and incantatory resonance that carved itself into the memory of its listeners. This explains the origin of rhythm, metre and musical effects. And so this earliest era of poetic composition evinced the importance of storytelling and song, for it was through oral recitation that people could share ideas and knowledge before the invention of writing. These ancient song-tales were refined into scripts and structured into what was recognised as poetry.?

Oratory, then, is the art of speaking in public eloquently and effectively; it’s the legacy of the old bards and philosophers; it’s marked by the force and persuasiveness of fluency, the ability to use language and express opinions; and it uses rhetoric to dress the words up in cogent, elegant, seductive features capable to impress and influence the audience.??

‘Rhetoricians believed that many of their techniques were based on those of the poets, and made frequent use of quotations from literary authors in illustrating rhetorical devices.’ (Renaissance Figures of Speech, page 3.)?

Not only in written material do the literary devices and figures of rhetoric flourish.? We saw that history is marked by the letters and voices of great figures of public life. Within this public sphere, we find the arena where citizens unite to discourse and discuss opinions on particular or public affairs, and to ponder and deliberate on political, sociological and philosophical matters.?

But is within the political realms that the greatest speeches were given. Politics is the activity related to the influence, getting or keeping power in a government. It’s true that political conflict emerges as a systematic struggle caused by the clashes of interests and viewpoints. Politicians need power to influence, and the biggest source of influence they can muster comes from oratory, an argumentative weapon, the spoken words. A great discourse must be powerful, the diction must be perfect, the wording must be impacting, the syntax and semantics must be carefully planned. To achieve this, politicians use literary devices; precisely the figures of rhetoric we are studying in this article. What follows next are some examples of how words and the form words are arranged can be powerful and change the course of human history.?

The American Abraham Lincoln and the English Winston Churchill and the Anglo-Irish Edmund Burke were masters of oratory; their voices teach us how eloquence, when tamed, is irresistibly influential.?

2.1.2. The writing.?

But first, on the other corner of the linguistic class, writing is the tangible form of language materialised in paper; and so, is the principal modus to bequeath information, information that is made into knowledge, knowledge that is moulded into tradition, tradition that is transformed into culture. Whether a natural talent or an acquired skill, the art of oratory and writing inexorably demands deep and complete knowledge of language.??

There are different types of writing that serves different segments and fields, where and when literary devices may be used. Disciplines, special areas of expertise and professionalised businesses and careers create styles and idiomatic expression commonly used by their members. Thus, the professionals of one of these neighbourhoods have their diction couched in jargon and other dialectal styles, creating their unique speech community. They not only use their idiolects to self-express and communicate, furthermore, they imperceptibly create argots diffused in their writing and speech. This is notable in academics, business, legal, medicine, journalism. And these patois are unreadable and unknown to the layman.??

The same is true with literature and poetry, for an illiterate person might read Shakespeare with thick-lensed glasses and even so might not comprehend the tinges of his lines. Different forms of writing use distinct vocabularies, selected jargon, idiomatic expressions and devices. Considering the separate forms of writing, literature is another exclusive field of writing, and within the literary world poetry and prose are its branches. It is therefore in poetry and prose that the artist, while handling and using words to create their work, uses literary devices, such as figures of rhetoric and figures of speech.?

?The rhetorician teaches the writer to carry out ‘designs’ on the reader; words used seductively compel assent by producing delight in the ear and mind of the perceiver. Similarly, the architect distributes his materials to woo and enchant the beholder of a building.?

3. Rhetorical Devices.??

Life and dictionaries show us that art is expression of the self through an object, a painting, a sculpture, a verse. Eyes and ears grasp the inspiration, and passion triggers the heart, and the heart pulses the feelings and energy, and the brain conducts and externalises all. There’s no doubt oratory and writing are forms of art that use ordinary words in unordinary ways. Writing literature and uttering a speech use all these steps in the creation of art accordingly.??

Literary device is any technique that supports the creation of a deeper significance, surpassing the lines on a page, used to touch wider themes, ideas and meanings. In prose or poetry, the devices are the same, for they can use structural, grammatical, rhythmic, metrical, verbal and visual elements.??

Rhetorical figures are forms of expression used not just to convey information and influence people but also to emphasise the meaning and affect the listener or reader, which are the techniques for making a single phrase striking and memorable just by altering the wording. Not by saying something different, but by saying something in a different way. They are the formulas for producing great lines (The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth).?

Some devices operate at the sentence level, transforming the immediate meaning of words, such as rhyme or alliteration, but others serve the whole work, such as the satirical allegorical novella Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945). Writers often use multiple literary devices in tandem. (Masterclass.)?

It’s within all literary devices that we find figures of rhetoric and figures of speech.?

3.1. Figures of rhetoric and figures of speech.?

Figurative language is phrasing that goes beyond the literal meaning of words, it consists of or includes literary devices. Also known as figures of rhetoric, figures of speech are devices that occur when any intentional deviation from a literal statement or common usage emphasizes, clarifies or embellishes both written and spoken language (Britannica). They are integral parts of language, found in oratory, poetry and prose, used to create profound connotations, and these considered literary devices, are used to sustain an argument, case in which are deemed rhetorical devices.?

Henry Peacham, in the first edition of his The Garden of Eloquence (1577), offers a treatment of the figures by dividing them into tropes and schemes. Both types involve a transference of some kind: a trope, a transference of meaning; a scheme, a transference of order.?

Schemes are stylistic devices that play with sound and syntax by changing the word order or pairing words with similar sounds, changing the ordinary or expected pattern or position of words. It involves a deviation from the ordinary arrangement of elements within a sentence.?

Tropes are figures that use words non-literally to express a figurative meaning, changing the general and ordinary meaning of words. It also involves a deviation, but from the regular signification of a word, to create a particular mental image or effect.?

Many tried to catalogue them, but given to their multifarious traits, most figures fall into more than one type; and there are hundreds of them. Consequently, there is no positivistic or authoritative conceptualization of literary devices. Concrete definitions and entitlement of types are fairly difficult, and thus scholars and historians could not find and establish a consensus. One is virtually indistinguishable from another. Above all, a modern rhetorician would insist that the figures, like all elements of rhetoric, reflect and determine not only the conceptualizing processes of the speaker’s mind but also an audience’s potential response.??

Basically, figures operate at syntactic or semantic levels; syntactic when the natural, structural flow of phrases, clauses and sentences is altered, and semantic when the words are used with significance other than their primitive, literal meanings.?

3.1.1. Classes of figures of rhetoric.?

Nevertheless, the most important devices are labelled for their form and purpose (myshakespeare.me):?

Augmentation – are rhetorical figures of addition use either more words than necessary or words invoke more meanings than expected: Hyperbole, Adynaton, Epithet, Euphemism, Ambiguity, Amplification, Apposition, Circumlocution, Hendiadys, Neologism, Periphrasis.?

Arrangement – when words are arranged in a structured order, most times deliberately misplaced from the natural order, which would be expected: Anadiplosis, Anastrophe, Isocolon.??

Comparison – is based on the identity of sound, proportion and number, usually classified with figures of similitude, which is often associated with methods of amplification, as techniques for expanding and comparing.?

Omission - These figures of speech may omit letters, syllables, words or ideas. They may even just include a pause to create dramatic anticipation: Anapodoton, Aphaearesis, Aphesis, Apocope, Aporia, Aposiopesis, Apostrophe, Asyndeton, Caesura, Ellipsis, Enthymeme, Metaplasm, Paralepsis, Rhetorical Question, Syncope.?

Parallelism – not only the arrangement and structure this device focuses on but the semantic similarities, differences or oppositions are also evidenced. It’s the specific way of disposition of the elements within a phrase, either for comparative effect or emphatic repetition: Alliosis, Antimetabole, Antithesis, Chiasmus, Dichotomy, Epanados, Isocolon.?

Repetition – is the most emphatic and resonant device, for using insistent reiteration of words or phrases: Alliteration, Anadiplosis, Anaphora, Antanaclasis, Antimetabole, Assonance, Chiasmus, Consonance, Diacope, Epanados, Epanalepsis, Epimone, Epistrophe, Epizeuxis, Isocolon, Mesodiplosis, Polyptoton, Polysyndeton, Pysma, Rhyme, Symploce, Synonymia.?

Substitution - replaces an expected word, gender, part of speech, sensory response or else with something unexpected, causing surprise and amazement: Anthimeria, Anthropomorphism, Catachresis, Enallage, Erotema, Euphemism, Hypallage, Irony, Litotes, Malapropism, Metonymy, Onomatopoeia, Paronomasia, Periphrasis, Personification, Prosopopoeia, Pun, Rhetorical Question, Synecdoche, Transferred Epithet.?

Word Play – is the figurative category that uses the meaning of words in a witty construction: Acyrologia, Malapropism, Paronomasia, Polyptoton, Pun.?

3.1.2. Types of figures of rhetoric and examples in Literature.?

Unfortunately, it’s impractical to explore all devices in this article; it would require hundreds of pages. Some of the most important figures are then exemplified with excerpts from memorable literary works and speeches.?

Adynaton and hyperbole?

An adynaton is a periphrastic way to utter an unattainable achievement, an impossible task, to which comes inexorably a negative outcome; it’s a form of hyperbole in which the exaggeration is so great that it refers to an unfeasibility.??

One can expect an agreement between philosophers sooner than between clocks. Seneca. ? I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand than he shall get one on his cheek. Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 2, by Shakespeare.?

Epithet and Hendiadys?

The epithet (also byname) is a descriptive word that replaces the name when it describes the main characteristic of a person or object. Shakespeare the Bard and Alexander the Great, where bard and great are the epithets.?

Hendiadys is the substitution of a subordination for a conjunction; two nouns joined by a conjunction are used instead of a noun and its modifier (one modifying the other), transforming a noun phrase into two separate nouns, such furious sound into sound and fury, which emphasises the meaning of both nouns separately, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth:?

It is a tale ? Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, ? Signifying nothing.??

Anadiplosis and Anastrophe?

Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.??

For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for want of care about a horse-shoe nail. Benjamin Franklin.??

It can also ascend to a climax:??

The impulse increases to a wish, the wish to a desire, the desire to an uncontrollable longing, and the longing (to the deep regret and mortification of the speaker, and in defiance of all consequences) is indulged. Edgar Allan Poe.?

Anastrophe makes an inversion of the natural word order, changing object, subject and verb placement in a clause, emphasising the misplaced element.??

In short, as in appearance he seemed a dog, so now, in a marry way, like a dog he began to be treated. Herman Melville.??

Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath. Shakespeare.?

Isocolon??

Isocolon uses parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses to compare or contrast, highlighting likeness or unlikeness.??

We are fighting by ourselves alone; but we? are not fighting for ourselves alone. Churchill, London radio broadcast (1940).?

In Compensation, Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson: Everything is made of one hidden stuff; as the naturalist sees one type under every metamorphosis, and regards a horse as a running man, a fish as a swimming man, a bird as a flying man, a tree as a rooted man.??

As in T. S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion (1939) pt. 2, sc. 3:?

Round and round the circle? Completing the charm? So the knot be unknotted? The cross be uncrossed? The crooked be made straight? And the curse be ended.?

Note that the poem also creates Polyptoton, using words derived from the same root: ‘So the knot be unknotted / The cross be uncrossed’.?

Marriage is to me apostasy, profanation of the sanctuary of my soul, violation of my manhood, sale of my birthright, shameful surrender, ignominious capitulation, acceptance if defeat. Benard Shaw, Man and Superman.??

Dickens used isocolon with varied structures: 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. Note that the excerpt also uses Polysyndeton (use of conjunctions in close succession).?

Synonymia??

Synonymia is the figure of amplification and repetition that uses multiple words, with semantic similarity, in parallel form to explain or emphasise an idea. The tribune Marullus taunts the Roman populace in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for their fickleness, calling the people several different pejorative names: You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!??

Antimetabole??

Antimetabole repeats words in successive clauses but in reverse order.?

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits. Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad (1742) bk. 4, l. 90.?

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. George Eliot Adam Bede (1859) ch. 29.?

All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime. Oscar Wilde. It can be predictive for the mere reverse of the terms; but might trigger introspection, for its content or if told only one half of the line.??

Chiasmus??

Chiasmus occur when the second of the two-part sentence mirrors the first, but with no repetition of words, the second part doesn’t use the same words that appear in the first part (as in antimetabole), the same or opposing concepts and parts of speech are mirrored; the second phrase is merely a conceptual inversion of the first; derives its effectiveness from its symmetrical structure: creates only two sides of an argument to be considered.??

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote a perfect chiasmus: Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.?

A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy. Guy Fawkes. Dictionary of National Biography, 6 November 1605.?

The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility. John Arbuthnot Fisher, Lecture notes 1899-1902, in R. H. Bacon ‘Life of Lord Fisher’ (1929) vol. 1, ch. 7.?

You must be master and win, or serve and lose, grieve or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘Der Gross-Cophta’ (1791) act 2.?

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays (1841) ‘Self-Reliance’.?

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead. Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad (1742) bk. 2, l. 44.?

Samuel Johnson’s poem The Vanity of Human Wishes (1794) reads: By day the frolic, and the dance by night.??

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life. ‘Felix Holt’ (1866) ch. 3.?

Churchill wrote: You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.??

Whilst Chesterton: The man who is theoretically a practical man, and practically more unpractical than any theorist. And: Literature has purposely become less political; politics have purposely become less literary.?

No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Crack-Up ‘Note-Books’ (1945).?

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee? And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me. Robert Frost’s Cluster of Faith (1962).?

?Antithesis??

Antithesis composes the juxtaposition of parallel but contrasting and opposing ideas, often using parallelism (parallel structures); and it’s a variety of isocolon.??

Contempt is the proper punishment of affectation, and detestation the just consequence of hypocrisy. - Samuel Johnson, who also wrote: Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.??

Oscar Wilde: Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.?

If the government is cruel, the governor's life is not safe. If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing. If you make the criminal code sanguinary, juries will not convict. If the law is too mild, private vengeance comes in. If the government is a terrific democracy, the pressure is resisted by an overcharge of energy in the citizen, and life glows with a fiercer flame. In Compensation, Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson.?

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays (1841) ‘Prudence’.?

Aposiopesis??

Aposiopesis is one of the most expressive devices, more eloquent than a statement would be, for it consists of a sudden interruption in speech… leaving the utterance unfinished due to affections of fear, anger, sorrow, bashfulness. The abruption is represented by the punctuation ellipsis (…) or dash ( — ).??

Well, that is very decided indeed —? that does seem as if — but, however, it may all come to nothing, you know. Austen, Pride and Prejudice.??

Shakespeare’s King Lear, overcome by anger at his daughters, says:??

I will have such revenges on you both,? That all the world shall— ? I will do such things,—? What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be? The terrors of the earth.?

Asyndeton and Alliteration??

Asyndeton is another figure of omission that leaves out the conjunctions between related words or clauses. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar made an asyndetic declaration: Veni, vidi, vici.??

Poe wrote: My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me.??

Of the figures of structural or lexical repetition, Alliteration is one of the most common, though also confounded with consonance. It’s the repetition of the initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, not necessarily the use of words with exactly the same consonant, but the consonance relies on sonorous harmony. Like the sibilant sound of ‘s’ in The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe:??

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.??

Or in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis:??

In the early morning the servant came—with sheer strength and speed she slammed shut all the doors.??

James Thomson's poem Autumn has the following lines of alliterative bs and hs:??

A pleasing calm; while broad and brown, below? Extensive harvests hang the heavy head.?

Antanaclasis??

A type of homonymic pun, Antanaclasis uses a keyword repeated in two different and sometimes contrary senses, for a play on words.??

Your argument is sound, nothing but sound. Benjamin Franklin.??

Comedians use the device: I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it. Groucho Marx.?

Anaphora??

Anaphora structures the repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive clauses/sentences.??

In every cry of every man, ? In every infant's cry of fear, ? In every voice, in every ban, ? The mind-forged manacles I hear. London by William Blake.??

It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down.? It is not the houses. It is the spaces in between the houses.? It is not the streets that exist. It is the streets that no longer exist.? It is not your memories which haunt you.? It is not what you have written down.? It is what you have forgotten, what you must forget. James Fenton’s German Requiem (1981) p. 1.?

One Ring to rule them all. ? One Ring to find them; ? One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.’ (J R R Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954, chapter 2. The Shadow of the Past).?

It may cause expectation triggered by the rhythmic repetitive sounds, which may form silly cliches but also hammering effect when satisfying the curiosity or even disrupting it:??

He is old, he is young, he is very wise, he is altogether ignorant. Emerson, Spiritual Laws.??

It can also heighten the contrast in affirmative and negative constructions, Chesterton’s speciality:??

You are sagacious, you are benevolent, you are well informed, but, Chadd, you are not savage.?

Epanalepsis, Anthimeria and Enallage??

Epanalepsis causes the repetition of words at the end of the sentence, usually with intervening words setting off the repetition, giving the sense of circuitry, where the second instance of the repeated word completes a thought about it.??

I have fed purely upon ale; I have eat my ale, drank my ale, and I always sleep upon ale. ‘The Beaux’ Stratagem’ by George Farquhar (1707) act 1, sc. 1.?

You are a human boy, my young friend. A human boy.? O glorious to be a human boy!...? O running stream of sparkling joy? To be a soaring human boy! Mr Chadband in ‘Bleak House’ (1853) Ch. 19.?

Between the figures of substitution, Anthimeria replaces one part of speech for another. Shakespeare, the most creative of artists, forged neologistic words using the device:??

The thunder would not peace at my bidding. King Lear. ? A mile before his tent fall down, and knee The way into her mercy. Coriolanus.???

Enallage is a deliberate grammatical mistake ignoring grammatical rules or conventions, such as the use of tense, form or person for a grammatically incorrect counterpart. Shakespeare wrote: Is there not wars? he uses enallage to achieve parallel structure. Aeneid, Virgil speaks of the walls of lofty Rome; 'lofty walls' is about architecture, but 'lofty Rome' is about empire. My patience are exhausted, said James Joyce’s Molly.?

Litotes??

Litotes ironically uses a negative or weak statement to emphasize a positive meaning; the speaker avoids making an affirmative claim and instead denies its opposite in verbal irony.??

There are not unpleasant subjects; they are not uninteresting subjects; they are even exciting subjects - until one of these massive scientists gets hold of them. Mark Twain.??

Trollope set against assumptions:??

There be men, and not bad men either, and men neither uneducated, or unintelligent, or irrational in ordinary matters, who seem to be absolutely unfitted by nature to have the custody or guardianship of others.??

Using ‘without’: It will then be answered, not without a sneer, And what would you prefer? Chesterton.?

Along with litotes, Oxymoron also explores the opposite, the contradiction and ambivalent characteristics of things, people or situations, and for this purpose, it uses paradox, antithesis, euphemism, meiosis, understatement and antiphrasis.??

In my beginning is my end. T S Eliot, ‘Four Quartets’ (1940) pt. 1.?

What we call the beginning is often the end? And to make an end is to make a beginning.? The end is where we start from. T S Eliot, ‘Four Quartets’ ‘Little Gidding’ (1942) pt. 5.?

There is nothing that fails like success. – Chesterton; he also creates a paradoxical denial: Our scientific civilisation is not a civilization; it is a smoke nuisance. And: Carlyle understood everything about the French Revolution, except that it was a French Revolution.??

Shaw created a simple paradox: The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.??

Personification and Climax??

Personification occurs when ideas or things are given human attributes or feelings, they are referred to as human beings. There is something subversive about this garden of Serena’s. It breathes, in the warmth, breathing itself in. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Another perfect example is the bird in The Raven by Poe, for it smartly answers the narrator’s questions by repeating nevermore.?

Climax builds an arrangement of words in order of increasing importance, a progressive advancement from one statement to another until a climax is achieved.??

I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means—except by getting off his back. Leo Tolstoy’s What Then Must We Do?’ (1886) Ch. 16 (translated by Maude).?

Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays (1841) ‘Self-Reliance’. Note that it also uses Polysyndeton, the use of repeated conjunctions between words or clauses (while Asyndeton omits the conjunctions).?

Paronomasia and Polyptoton?

Paronomasia is a homophonic pun using paired homonyms (words similar in sound, different in meaning).?

Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes,? With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead? So stakes me to the ground I cannot move. Shakespeare uses “sole” and “soul”, the speaker uses words that sound the same but are spelt differently to convey something about their situation.??

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Mine is a long and a sad tale! - makes Alice think that the Mouse is talking about “tail” rather than “tale.”?

Polyptoton creates also a play on words with the repetition of terms derived from the same root, but different in inflexion or case. It also creates internal rhyme and alliteration:??

But the modern student of ethics, even if he remains sane, remains sane from an insane dread of insanity. - Chesterton’s Heretics, who also wrote: The man who is theoretically a practical man, and practically more unpractical than any theorist. And: Not only is the judge not judicial, but the arbiter is not even arbitrary.??

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Henry David Thoreau in On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,1849.?

3.1.3. Example of multiple literary devices use.?

As it happens in most cases of literary composition, a single sentence or, in this case, a stanza with eight verses, may contain as many devices as it is possible their use without blurring the image depicted. In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954:?

All that is gold does not glitter,?

? Not all those who wander are lost;?

The old that is strong does not wither,?

? Deep roots are not reached by the frost.?

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,?

? A light from the shadows shall spring;?

Renewed shall be blade that was broken:?

? The crownless again shall be king.?

The poem has alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, as in gold and glitter, wander and wither, and sibilance in shadows shall spring. The use of antithesis (the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases) in gold does not glitter, those who wander are lost, old that is strong does not wither.??

It employs metaphors, deep roots for strength, stability, not literally about trees. There are paradoxes, for All that is gold does not glitter contradicts the common association of glitter with value but implies that true worth can be hidden, and Not all those who wander are lost.??

Tolkien also uses symbolism, because Gold symbolizes true worth or virtue, not just material wealth, Fire from ashes symbolizes resurrection, renewal, and rebirth, Light from shadows represents hope emerging from darkness or despair, Blade that was broken symbolizes something that has been damaged or weakened but will be restored, Crownless king suggests a rightful ruler who will return to power.??

The poem is structured in parallelism to create rhythm and balance, in From the ashes and From the shadows, and Renewed shall be blade and The crownless again shall be king.?

It employs an almost perfect chiasmus in All that is gold does not glitter / Not all those who wander are lost.?

It also makes an ellipsis in The crownless again shall be king for the subject is not mentioned, but clearly understood, making the line more forceful and declarative.??

4. Conclusion.?

The principles of style are not a mystery, neither are the rhetorical powers of words.?

Using literary devices to enhance writing is an echo of style, the fashion, the gesture, the comportment that is naturally expressed by the writer or orator. Stylish writings are replete with them. However, the overuse of the figures may tarnish the text.??

In his book, The Elements of Style, William Strunk alerts:??

Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. And although literary devices are indicative of good style, the beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is an expression of self, and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style — all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.?

There are infinite ways to write or say something, and the simplicity is not the use of plain, common words (as supplicated by Plain English supporters), but a wording without fulsome orotundity that makes the text turgid, without grandiloquent sentences or highfalutin clauses, without latinates, unnecessary jargon, unclear and rare words, purplish and stilted diction etc. (like the one you’ve just read). It means that a great orator or writer will not lard their phrases, but simply make them with the complementary principles of uniformity and diversity, explore their symphony and symmetry, for ‘short and simple words are the good writer’s staple.’ - Farnsworth.?

It is not necessary to gather fancy words to say: Any colour—so long as it’s black. Henry Ford. On the colour choice for the Model T Ford, in Allan Nevins ‘Ford’ (1957) vol. 2, Ch. 15.??

Conventions and grammatical rules were grounded in the garden of the English language to protect its form, semantic value and purpose. There are rules for everything. Several rules. Some stoned rules should never be broken, indeed. But writers who excel in the prosaic usage of language ‘don’t live by one rule’ and when they ‘violate’ them the effect is powerful.??

Despite the apparent flourishment literary devices may dress, simplicity is the best remedy for lofty aggrandisement. Moreover, when poorly or unartfully used, the devices will certainly become a trite or overly ingenious oblique expression that wearies the reader (Pinker).?

‘Wherefore a figure is at its best when the very fact that it is a figure escapes attention .... For art is perfect when it seems to be nature, and nature hits the mark when she contains art hidden within her.’ Cassius Longinus’ On the Sublime.?

True eloquence, Oliver Goldsmith says, Does not consist ... in saying great things in a sublime style, but in a simple style; the language may be turgid, affected, metaphorical, but not affecting.?

Learning how to read literature is the first step on how to analyse, understand and write literature. And literary devices permit the deviation of common and standard outlines of words, as a technique used by a writer to wreathe the common way of writing in an elegant, eternal fashion. The tree of rhetoric gives in its bough hundreds of devices to colour the words to fight the univariable monotony of ordinary writing.?

It is worth saying it again, the use of figures and all literary devices makes prose a poem. Prose and speech with at least one of all those devices, are delightful to the ear, are rhetorical schemes which twist the mundane form of language, resound in the ears of those who listen to them, electrify in the eyes of those who read them, effectuate an ecstatic effect in the mind.??

Bibliographic references?

The Elements of Eloquence. 2013 by Mark Forsyth. Penguin Group.?

Renaissance Figures of Speech. Edited by Sylvia Adamson, Gavin Alexander and Katrin Ettenhuber, 2007. Cambridge University Press.?

Cambridge Grammar of English. Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy. 2006. Cambridge University Press.?

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, 2014. Steven Pinker. Viking.?

Farnsworth’s Classical English Style. Ward Farnsworth, 2020. David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc.?

The Elements of Style. William Strunk. 2000. Macmillan Publishing.??

MasterClass. Literary Devices. Sep 8, 2021. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/22-essential-literary-devices.?

Figures of Speech. Shakespeare's Works. Elements. https://myshakespeare.me.?

An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory by Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle. Third Edition, 2004. Pearson Longman.?

Literary Theory, A Complete Introduction by Sara Upstone, 2017 by Teach Yourself Publisher.?

Britannica. Literature. Literary terms. https://www.britannica.com/art/figure-of-speech.?