1. Figurative Language in Latin Poetry
Literary Devices
Figurative Language
in Latin Poetry

2. Anaphora quod facit, quod fugat (Ovid Metamorphoses)
Nihilne te praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi…moverunt?
(Cicero In Catilinam)
repetition of words or phrases (often for emphasis)
As I ebb’d with the ocean of life,
As I wended the shores I know,
As I walk’d… (W. Whitman)

3. Anastrophe inversion of usual/typical word order
"Ready are you? What know you of ready? My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained ” (Yoda in Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980) 
te propter vivo (instead of the expected propter te vivo)
āctī fātīs maria omnia circum (Vergil)
…Umbras erat illa recentes
inter et incessit passu…
(Ovid Metamorphoses)

4. Apostrophe addressing an absent person
Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull….
(John Milton)
Twinkle twinkle, little star…
O maiores, quid diceretis de hac re? ("Oh ancestors, what would you say about this matter?")
Vel quae, Tiberine, videbis funera
(Vergil Aeneid)

5. Asyndeton vs. Polysyndeton
asyndeton: omission of conjunctions
“…government of the people, for the people, by the people”
polysyndeton: use of more conjunctions than usual or necessary
“…Swims or sinks or wades or creeps or flies…
Veni, vidi, vici.
Laudat digitosque manusque bracchiaque.

6. Chiasmus
arrangement of words in criss-cross (A-B-B-A) pattern to emphasize some contrast or to create a word-picture
“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
…fors ignara dedit,
sed saeva Cupidinis ira…
(Ovid Meta 1.453)
magnas urbes et oppida parva viderunt
(adj-noun-noun-adj)
magnas urbes
oppida parva

7. More Chiasmus lassa versati ossa corporis
lassaque versati corporis ossa dolent…
(…the weary bones of [my] body tossing and turning hurt… -- Ovid Amores)
lassa
versati
ossa
corporis

8. Enjambment
a running on of a thought from one line to another without final punctuation
may sometimes trick a reader
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see  A poem lovely as a tree. 
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest  Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; 
A tree that looks at God all day,  And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 
Ille mi par esse deo videtur,
ille, si fas est, superare divos
qui sedens adversus identidem te
spectat et audit
dulce ridentem, misero quod  omnis
eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
Lesbia, adspexi…. (Catullus 51)

9. Hyperbole
exaggeration

10. Litotes
an affirmative is expressed by a negative (a form of understatement)
I’m not unfamiliar with the term.
Nec nuda minus formosa videtur….
(formosa = pulchra)
(Ovid Meta)
non paucos ures
(uro, urere = burn)

11. Metonymy

12. Hyperbaton

13. Synchesis

14. Tmesis

15. Metaphor & Simile

16. Onomatopoeia

17. Personification