Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Metaplasmic
Definition Example
Figures
addition of letters to the I all alone beweep my outcast state.---
prosthesis
beginning of a word Shakespeare Sonnets, 29
Use every man after his desert, and
omission of letters from the
aphaersis who should 'scape whipping?---Hamlet,
beginning of a word
2.2.561
addition of letters to the Lie blist'ring fore the visitating sun.---
epenthesis
middle of a word Two Noble Kinsmen, 1.1.146
Thou thy worldly task hast done,/
omission of letters from the
syncope Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.
middle of a word
Cymberline, 4.2.258
addition of letters to the end I can call spirits from the vasty deep.---
paragoge
of a word Henry IV, Part I, 3.1.52
I am Sir Oracle,/ And when I ope my
omission of letters from the
apocope lips let no dog bark!---The Merchant of
end of a word
Venice, 1.1.93
substitution of a letter or Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature,
antisthecon sound for another within a cesse!---All's Well That Ends Well,
word 5.3.75
transposition of a letter out With liver burning hot. Frevent.---The
metathesis
of its normal order in a word Merry Wives of Windsor, 2.1.122
Figures of
Definition Example
Omission
And he to England shall along
ellipsis omission of a word
with you.---Hamlet, 3.3.1
How Tarquin wronged me, I
an ellipsis of a verb, in which one verb
zeugma Collatine.---The Rape of Lucrece,
is used to govern several clauses
819
A maid in conversation chaste, in
scesis speech mild, in countenance
omission of the verb of a sentence
onamaton cheerful, in behavior modest ...
[etc.]---The Garden of Eloquence
Haply you shall not see me more;
anapodoton omission of a clause or if,/ A mangled Shadow.---
Antony and Cleopatra, 4.2.26.
He said you were, I dare not tell
stopping a sentence in midcourse so you plaine:/ For words once out,
aposiopesis
that the statement is unfinished never returne againe.---The Arte
of English Poesie, 139
I will make no mention of his
When the orator feigneth and maketh
drunken banquets nightly, and
as though he would say nothing in
his watching with bawds, dicers,
some matter, when, notwithstanding
occupatio whore masters. I will not name
he speaketh most of all, or when he
his losses, his luxurity, and
saith something: in saying he will not
staining of his honesty.---The
say it.---The Garden of Eloquence, 130
Garden of Eloquence, 131
Figures of
Repetition
Definition Example
(clauses and
ideas)
arrangement of clauses or I may, I must, I can, I will, I do/
auxesis sentences in ascending order of Leave following that which it is gain
importance to miss.---Astrophil and Stella, 47
repetition of phrases or clauses
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to
of equal length and
isocolon women, French to men, and
corresponding grammatical
German to my horse.---Charles V
structure
If you have a friend, keep your
needless repetition of the same
friend, for an old friend is to be
idea in different words;
tautology preferred before a new friend, this I
pleonasm on the level of a
say to you as your friend.---The
sentence or sentences
Garden of Eloquence, 49
reversal of grammatical
But O, what damned minutes tells
structures or ideas in sucessive
he o'er/ Who dotes, yet doubts;
chiasmus phrases or clauses, which do not
suspects, yet strongly loves.---
necessarily involve a repetition
Othello, 3.3.169
of words
A bliss in proof; and prov'd, a very
repetition of clauses or idea by woe;/ Before, a joy propos'd;
antithesis
negation behind a dream.---Shakespeare
Sonnets, 129
the replacement of a single word
by several which together have
While memory holds a seat/ In this
periphrasis the same meaning; a
distracted globe...---Hamlet, 1.4.96
substitution of more words for
less
Figures of
Unusual Word Definition Example
Order
arrangment by reversal of
ordinary word order, usually Figures pedantical---Love's Labour's
anastrophe
confined to the transposition Lost, 5.2.407
of two words only
Yet I'll not shed her blood,/ Nor scar
departure from ordinary word
hyperbaton that whiter skin of hers than snow...---
order
Othello, 5.2.3
My dame that bred me up and bare
hysteron
reversal of temporal order me in her wombe.---The Arte of
proteron
English Poesie, 142
a reversal of words which Open the day, and see if it be the
hypallage
seems to change the sense window.---The Garden of Eloquence
But now my Deere (for so love makes
a word, phrase, or sentence me to call you still)/ That love I say,
parenthesis inserted as an aside in a that lucklesse love, that works me all
sentence complete by itself this ill.---The Arte of English Poesie,
141
a diversion of discourse
from the topic at hand to Within a month.../ She married--O most
apostrophe addressing some person or wicked speed: to post/ With such dexterity
thing, either present or to incestuous sheets...---Hamlet, 1.2.153
absent