FIGURES OF SPEECH

Definition Example
Poor broken glass, I often did
the substitution of a word for a word whose behold/ In thy sweet semblance
metaphor
meaning is close to the original word my old age new born...---The
Rape of Lucrece,1758-59
a noun is substituted for a noun in such a way
that we substitute the cause of the thing of which
I must comfort the weaker
we are speaking for the thing itself; this might be
vessel, as doublet and hose
done in several ways: substituting the inventor for
metonymy ought to show itself courageous
his invention, the container for the thing
to petticoat.---As You Like It,
contained or vice versa, an author for his work,
2.4.6
the sign for the thing signified, the cause for the
effect or vice versa
Was this the face that launched
substitution of part for whole, genus for species, a thousand ships,/ And burnt the
synecdoche
or vice versa topless towers of Ilium?---Dr.
Faustus, 12.80-81
He was no notorious
malefactor, but he had been
expressing a meaning directly contrary to that twice on the pillory, and once
Irony
suggested by the words burnt in the hand for trifling
oversights.---Direccions for
Speech and Style
O modest wantons! wanton
oxymoron a condensed paradox at the level of a phrase modesty!---The Rape of
Lucrece, 401
deliberate understatement or denial of the He is no fool.---The Arte of
Litotes
contrary English Poesie, 184
His legs bestrid the ocean, his
exaggerated or extravagant statement used to rear'd arm/ Crested the world,
hyperbole make a strong impression, but not intended to be his voice was propertied/ As all
taken literally the tuned spheres...---Antony
and Cleopatra, 5.2.82
Mad world! Mad kings! Mad
repetition of a word at the beginning of a clause,
anaphora composition!---King John,
line, or sentence
2.1.561
 reversal of grammatical structures or ideas
in sucessive phrases or clauses, which do
chiasmus
not necessarily involve a repetition of
words
antithesis repetition of clauses or idea by negation
the replacement of a single word by
several which together have the same
periphrasis
meaning; a substitution of more words for
less
But O, what damned minutes tells he
o'er/ Who dotes, yet doubts;
suspects, yet strongly loves.---
Othello, 3.3.169
A bliss in proof; and prov'd, a very woe;/
Before, a joy propos'd; behind a
dream.---Shakespeare Sonnets, 129
While memory holds a seat/ In this
distracted globe...---Hamlet, 1.4.96

arrangment by reversal of ordinary word order,

Figures pedantical---Love's
anastrophe usually confined to the transposition of two words
Labour's Lost, 5.2.407
only

a diversion of discourse from the topic Within a month.../ She married--O most
apostrophe at hand to addressing some person or wicked speed: to post/ With such dexterity
thing, either present or absent to incestuous sheets...---Hamlet, 1.2.153

In rhetoric, a climax (from the Greek κλῖμαξ klimax, meaning "staircase" and "ladder") is a
figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing
importance. It is sometimes used with anadiplosis, which uses the repetition of a word or
phrase in successive clauses.

Examples:

 "There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these
is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
 "I think we've reached a point of great decision, not just for our nation, not only for all
humanity, but for life upon the earth." George Wald A Generation in Search of a
Future, March 4, 1969.
 "...Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour. William Shakespeare, The Passionate
Pilgrim, XIII
 "...the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Martin Luther
King, I Have a Dream
 Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime

Similarly an anti-climax is an abrupt declension (either deliberate or unintended) on the part

of a speaker or writer from the dignity of idea which he appeared to be aiming at; as in the
following well-known distich:

"The great Dalhousie, he, the god of war,

 Lieutenant-colonel to the earl of Mar."

An anticlimax can be intentionally employed only for a jocular or satiric purpose. It frequently
partakes of the nature of antithesis, as–

"Die and endow a college or a cat."

It is often difficult to distinguish between "anticlimax" and "bathos"; but the former is more
decidedly a relative term. A whole speech may never rise above the level of bathos; but a
climax of greater or less elevation is the necessary antecedent of an anticlimax.