Poetic Devices Flashcards
(49 cards)
Antanaclasis
Two senses of the same word.
Example: “put out the light, and then put out the light”
Polyptoton
Same word used in different cases.
Example: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
Auxesis
Words in heightened climatic order
Example: “jeans that can lengthen legs, hug hips, and turn heads”
Anadiplosis
Starting the next line or clause with the word that ended the previous line
Example: “when I give, I give myself” “I am Sam, Sam I am”
Epanorthosis
Speaker corrects or comments something he/she just said
Example: maybe there is a beast, what I mean is, maybe it’s only us
Meiosis
Lessening, belittling order. Opposite of auxesis.
Example: I fear I am not in my perfect mind
Olfactory
Representation of smell
Gustatory
Representation of taste
Tactile
Representation of touch
Kinesthetic
Movement, physical tension
Synecdoche
Using a part to describe a whole
Example: gray beard to refer to old man
Hyperbole
Exaggeration
Litotes
Understatement using double negatives. Positive statement by negating the negative
“I am not unaware”
Enthymeme
Unstated assumption in a logical argument
Parataxis
Phrases and clauses are placed one after another independently without coordinating or subordinating them through the use of conjunctions.
I came I saw I conquered
Hypotaxis
Arrangement or clauses in subordinate or dependent form
Synesthesia
Mixture of senses
Asyndeton
Omit coordinating conjunctions such as “and” “but” etc
Chiasmus
Two phrases that are parallel but inverted to each other.
example: “do I love you because you’re beautiful, or are you beautiful because i love you?”
Metonymy
Choose something related to an idea to represent the idea as a whole
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”
Erotesis
A rhetorical question that does not get answered
Hypophora
Asking a question and immediately answering it
Polysyndeton
Use and repeat many coordinating conjunctions
Homoioteleuton
Pattern of similar endings
Rawest, densest, muddiest
