Poetry Schemes -in Outline Form From E.P.J. Corbett, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student

I. Schemes of Construction

A. Schemes of Balance 1. Parallelism: similarity of structure in a pair of related words, phrases, or clauses. e.g. “a teacher wants to teach, to please, and to move.”

Schemes of Balance cont. 2. Antithesis – the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel form e.g. “Many things difficult to design prove easy to perform”

B. Schemes of Unusual or Inverted Word Order 1. Anastrophe – inversion of the natural or usual word order e.g. “Backward run the sentences till reels the mind”

Schemes of Unusual or Inverted Word Order cont. 2. Parenthesis – insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence e.g. “he tried – who wouldn’t? – to find the dog”

Schemes of Unusual or Inverted Word Order cont. 3. Apposition – placing two coordinate elements side by side, the second modifying/explaining the first e.g. John, deaf to all, would not answer the phone

C. Schemes of Omission 1. Ellipsis – deliberate omission of a word or words which are readily supplied by the context. e.g. “And he to England shall along with you.”

Schemes of Omission cont. 2. Asyndeton \ə- ’ sin-də-tän –\ deliberate omission of conjunctions between related clauses e.g. “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

D. Schemes of Repetition 1. Alliteration – repetition of initial or medial consonant sounds in two or more adjacent words e.g. “it is lawful to picket the premises for peace”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 2. Assonance – repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded/followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words e.g. “a blind, despised and dying king”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 3. Anaphora – repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginnings of successive clauses. e.g., “we shall fight, we shall win, and we shall celebrate”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 4. Epistrophe – repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses e.g., “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 5. Analepsis – repetition at the end of a clause of the word that began the clause e.g., “blood hath brought blood, strength matched with strength.”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 6. Anadiplosis \a-nə-də-plō-səs\ – repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause e.g., “Success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry, and industry ultimately brings fat cash.”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 7. Climax – repetition of words, phrases, or clauses in increasing importance e.g., “Let a man acknowledge obligations to his family, his country, and his God.”

Schemes of Repetition cont. 8. Antimetabole \ an`ti*me*tab"o*le\ – repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order e.g., “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” (what a bunch of crapola)

Schemes of Repetition cont. 9. Polytoton – repetition of words derived from the same root e.g., “No man is just who deals unjustly with another man.”

II. The Tropes

A. Metaphor Metaphor: An implied comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common

B. Simile Simile – an explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common

C. Synechdoche Synechdoche - A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole e.g., “He asked for her hand in marriage.”

D. Metonymy Metonymy - Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant e.g.“He was addicted to the bottle.”

E. Puns Puns – a generic name for those figures which make a play on words 1. Antanaclasis –repetition of word in two senses e.g., “You’ll only be right if you take a right.”

(puns, continued) 2. Paranomasia –the use of words alike in sound but different in meaning e.g. “it was foul to steal my fowl”

(Puns, continued) 3. Syllepsis – the use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words e.g., “He lost his hat and his temper.”

F. Personification Personification - Investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities/abilities e.g., “the ground thirsts for rain”

G. Hyperbole Hyperbole - The use of exaggerated terms for emphasis or heightened effect “her grace could move mountains”

H. Litotes Litotes - The deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive, but to enhance impressiveness e.g., “it was a not unhappy crowd that greeted the winning team.”

I. Rhetorical Question Rhetorical Question - To ask a question not for an answer, but to assert/deny something obliquely e.g., “Should we fight this oppression?”

J. Irony Irony - The use of a word/phrase to convey the opposite of the literal meaning e.g., every example you’ve seen so far this year

K. Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia - The use of words whose sound echoes the sense e.g., “over the cobbles he clattered and clashed”

L. Oxymoron Oxymoron - The yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory e.g., “To see you gives me such sweet pain.” e.g., “jumbo shrimp”