Important Latin Poetical Devices

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of the sound of the initial consonant.

Question 2

Anaphora

Answer 2

Repetition of the same word(s) at the start of successive clauses.

Question 3

Aposiopesis

Answer 3

“[A] figure in which the feelings of the speaker induce him to interrupt the expression and leave the sentence incomplete.”

Quos ego—!, Aeneid 1.135.

Question 4

Apostrophe

Answer 4

“[T]he speaker, instead of addressing directly his proper hearer, turns himself to some other person or thing, either really or only in imagination present.”

Question 5

Asyndeton

Answer 5

The omission of connectives – as opposed to polysyndeton.
saevus ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector,
ubi ingens/Sarpedon, ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis/
scuta virum…, Aeneid 1.99-100.
quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani tertium qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, Caesar Gallic War I.1

Question 6

Chiasmus

Answer 6

Chiasmus is a crossing of words, as in the word order ABBA. It’s related to synchesis.

Question 7

Ecphrasis

Answer 7

Ecphrasis is a vivid/graphic/dramatic description that allows the reader to visualize the object.

Question 8

Ellipsis

Answer 8

Ellipsis is "the omission of one or more words"
Haec secum (dixit), Aeneid 1.37.

Question 9

Enjambment

Answer 9

In poetry, it’s the running on from one line to the next without pause.

Question 10

Hendiadys

Answer 10

“The name Hendiadys is applied to a construction, in which two nouns are put in the same case, and connected by a copula, while in respect to sense one of them must be taken as a Gen[itive] following the other, or as an adjective qualifying the other.”
molemque et montes, Aeneid 1.61.
belli atque fortitudinis, Caesar Gallic War I.1.

Question 11

Hyperbole

Answer 11

Hyperbole is “the language of exaggeration.”

terram inter fluctus aperit, Aeneid 1.107.

Question 12

Litotes

Answer 12

“[D]eliberate understatement or denial of the contrary”

neque abest suspicio, Caesar Gallic War I.4

Question 13

Metonymy

Answer 13

Substitution of one name for another.

Cererem corruptam undis, Aeneid 1.177.

Question 14

Onomatopoeia

Answer 14

“[F]orms words so that by their sound they may express their sense.”

magno cum murmure montis, Aeneid 1.55.

Question 15

Oxymoron

Answer 15

This occurs when opposed terms are joined.

Question 16

Personification

Answer 16

“[A] form of expression, in which the attributes, or qualities of living beings are ascribed to inanimate objects.

Question 17

Polyptoton

Answer 17

The repetition of the same word in different form.”

Ex nihilo nihilum, ad nihilum nil posse reverti.” Pers. 3.84

Question 18

Polysyndeton

Answer 18

The repetition of connectives – as opposed to asyndeton.

Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque…/Africus, Aeneid 1.85-86.

Question 19

Prolepsis

Answer 19

Flash forward.

submersasque obrue puppes, Aeneid 1.69.

Question 20

Prosopopoeia

Answer 20

The speaker impersonates someone else.

Question 21

Synchesis

Answer 21

Synchesis “is a confused and intricate arrangement of words” or a total verbal jumble. Also known as interlocking word order.

Question 22

Synecdoche

Answer 22

Substitution of part for whole, genus for species, or vice versa.

Question 23

Tmesis

Answer 23

Tmesis, from a verb meaning to cut, “is the division of a compound word and the interposing of other words betwixt its parts”
circum dea fundit, Aeneid 1.412.

Question 24

Transferred Epithet

Answer 24

Rhetorical device in which a modifier, usually an adjective, is applied to the “wrong” word in the sentence. The word whose modifier is thus displaced can either be actually present in the sentence, or it can be implied logically. The effect often stresses the emotions or feelings of the individual by expanding them on to the environment.
templumque vetustum desertae/Cereris, Aeneid 2.713-14.

Question 25

Tricolon Crescens

Answer 25

Tricolon crescens is “the accumulation of three parallel phrases or clauses, each of which is at least one syllable longer than that preceding”

Question 26

Zeugma

Answer 26

Zeugma occurs when several subjects share the same verb or when several verbs are governed by a single subject.
crudeles aras traiectaque pectora ferro nudavit, Aeneid 1.355-56.