Alliteration Repetition of the same letter or sound within nearby words Most often, repeated initial consonants Examples: Why not waste a wild weekend at Westmore Water Park? We saw a snake slithering by on our way home.

Allusion brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious or to a work of art Examples: The student’s procrastination was his Achilles heel. As we learn, we leave the darkness of the cave for the brightness of newfound knowledge.

Anaphora Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines Examples: This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise We must move forward not as a divided people, not as a broken country…

Antimetabole Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order Examples: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. You can take the gorilla out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the gorilla.

Antithesis Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction Example: Give me liberty or give me death. We shall support any friend, oppose an foe. Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

Asyndeton and Polysyndeton Asyndeton: The omission of conjunctions between coordinated phrases, clauses, or words, often resulting in a hurried rhythm or vehement effect Example: Caesar: I came; I saw; I conquered. Polysyndeton: Employing many conjunctions between clauses, often slowing the tempo or rhythm. It was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke.

Cumulative Sentence Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence, and then builds and adds on Example: He dipped his hands in the bichloride solution and shook them--a quick shake, fingers down, like the fingers of a pianist above the keys. I write this at a wide desk in a pine shed as I always do these recent years, in this life I pray will last, while the summer sun closes the sky to Orion and to all the other winter stars over my roof.

Hortative Sentence sentence that exhorts, advices, calls to action Less of a command and more of a request (imperative sentence is the opposite) Example: Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Imperative Sentence sentence used to command, enjoin, implore or entreat Example: We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.

Inversion Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order) Examples: Then up spoke the captain of our gallant ship, And a well-spoken man was he; Divided there is little we can do.

Juxtaposition placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts Examples: The darkness of his mood seeped into the lightness I possessed before his appearance.

Metaphor A comparison made by referring to one thing as another Examples: No man is an island. For ever since that time you went away I've been a rabbit burrowed in the wood.

Metonymy Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes. Examples: The pen is mightier than the sword. *The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the sword is an attribute of military action We await word from the crown.

Oxymoron Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another Examples: The sounds of silence filled the room. But this peaceful revolution.

Parallelism (parallel structure) Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses Examples: parallelism of words: She tried to make her pastry fluffy, sweet, and delicate. parallelism of phrases: Singing a song or writing a poem is joyous. parallelism of clauses: Perch are inexpensive; cod are cheap; trout are abundant; but salmon are best.

Periodic Sentence A sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end Example: For when that greatest of all wars broke out and a multitude of dangers presented themselves at one and the same time, when our enemies regarded themselves as irresistible because of their numbers and our allies thought themselves endowed with a courage which could not be excelled, we outdid them both in a way appropriate to each.

Personification Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities Examples: O beware, my lord, of jealousy! The insatiable hunger for imagination preys upon human life.

Rhetorical Question any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks Examples: Why are you so smart? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?