Metaphor:
A figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas; the
analogy is conveyed by the use of a metaphorical word in place of some other
word. For example: "Her eyes were glistening jewels".
Colonel Kurtz: "Are you an assassin?"
Captain Willard: "I'm a soldier."
Colonel Kurtz: "You're neither. You're an errand boy...sent by grocery
clerks...to collect a bill."
Pushing a string
Clichés are usually dead metaphors:
• Love is blind.
• It takes two to tango.
• Misery loves company .
• If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
• Too little, too late.
• Tip of the iceberg
But clichés can be used as the basis for a witty jujitsu by taking the form and
substituting other words:
• Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
• You can bring a whore to culture (original: horticulture), but you can’t
• make her think.
• Bankruptcy is a fate worse than debt.
• One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without
• laughing.
• The leisure of the theory class.
Or as Heinrich suggests, by taking them literally when they are used by others:
Opponent: The early bird catches the worm
You: It can have it. Opponent: Let’s not pour the baby out with the bath
water. You: No, let just pull the plug.
Syncrisis: Not this, but that.
Chiasmus
A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He
went to the country, to the town went she.”
▪ "Eat to live, not live to eat" - Attributed to Socrates
▪ "Live to fly, fly to live" - Iron Maiden's 1984 song Aces High
▪ "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your
country." John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
▪ "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning." Winston Churchill, The Lord Mayor's
Luncheon, Mansion House, November 10, 1942.
▪ "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, the rock was landed on us." Malcolm X, The
Ballot or the Bullet, Washington Heights, NY, March 29, 1964..
▪ "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Joseph Kennedy
▪ "You win to play, and you play to win." origin unknown, common phrase in
sports
▪ "Truth is beauty, beauty truth." John Keats
▪ "The weapons of war must be abolished, before they abolish us." John F.
Kennedy
▪ "With my mind on my money, and my money on my mind." Snoop Dogg
▪ "We do what we like, and we like what we do." Andrew W.K.
▪ "Mind your wants, 'cause there's someone that wants your mind." Parliament
▪ "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F.
Kennedy
▪ "Let's make sure that the Supreme Court does not pick the next president, and
this president does not choose the next Supreme Court." Albert Gore Jr. at the
2004 Democratic National Convention.
▪ "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our
example than by the example of our power." Bill Clinton at the 2008
Democratic National Convention.
▪ "America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way
round. Human rights invented America." [1] Jimmy Carter Farewell Address
▪ "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was
made a man." Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave, Written by Himself
***
Anaphora: [uh-naf-er-uh]
Figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one
sentence, clause, or phrase is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of
successive sentences, clauses, or phrases; repetition of the initial word(s) over
successive phrases or clauses.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends,
that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have
a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a
dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning
of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to
sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day
even the state of Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of injustice,
sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis
of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
—
— We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in
France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island,
whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we
shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. --Winston Churchill
With malice toward none;
with charity for all;
with firmness in the right,...
— Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct
to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
— Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
—
I fled Him down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind...
— Francis Thompson, "The Hound of Heaven"
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned
my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the
children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a
silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my
faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived
me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those
moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to
dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as
long as God Himself. Never. --Elie Wiesel, Night
We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means
necessary. We want equality by any means necessary.
— Malcolm X
***
Epistrophe: [eh-PISS-truh-FEE]
Figure of repetition that occurs when the last word or set of words in one
sentence, clause, or phrase is repeated one or more times at the end of successive
sentences, clauses, or phrases.
For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told
we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of
Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of
a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the
destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards
freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and
pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes,
we can.
It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the
ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king
who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised
land: Yes, we can, to justice and equality.
Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation.
Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can. --Barak Obama, New Hampshire
Primary Concession Speech, January 2008
...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth." --Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
"The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge
the chasms that divides [sic] us has come."--Nelson Mandela
"Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying
for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for
his country."--George Patton
Symploce: [sim-ploh-see]
Figure of repetition that combines Anaphora and Epistrophe in which the first
and last word or words in one phrase, clause, or sentence are repeated in one or
more successive phrases, clauses, or sentences; repetition of the first and last
words in a clause over successive clauses.
"Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of
fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it.
When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it."
"And while there will be time enough to debate our continuing differences,
now is the time to recognize that that which unites us is greater than that
which divides us."-- Al Gore, 2000 Concession Speech
"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he
was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw
wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and
tried to stop it."-- Ted Kennedy, Eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy
"We remember today that all our gentle heroes of Vietnam have given us a
lesson in something more: a lesson in living love -- their love for their
families lives; their love for their buddies on the battlefields and friends
back home lives; their love of their country lives."-- Ronald Reagan, Address
at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial
Climax:
Figure of repetition in which words or phrases or sentences are arranged in order
of increasing intensity or importance, often in parallel construction; words or
phrases arranged by degrees of increasing significance.
“You can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few
perverted, sick individuals, but if you do, shouldn’t you blame the whole
fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, isn’t this an
indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you,Greg,
isn’t this an indictment of our entire American Society? You can do what
you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth
the United States of America.” –Otter, Animal House
"Oh, America didn't need repeal, she needed repentance; she didn't need
rum, she needed righteousness; we don't need jags, we need Jesus; we don't
need more grog, we need more of God."—Billy Sunday
“A little neglect may breed great mischief . . . for want of a nail, the shoe
was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the
rider was lost.” --Benjamin Franklin
“They call for you: the general who became a slave; the slave who became a
gladiator; the gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story.” The
Emperor Commodus to Maximus, the gladiator in Gladiator
“Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard. Standard performance
is substandard. Substandard performance is not permitted to exist. That I
warn you.” –Captain Queeg, The Caine Mutiny
Alliteration
Figure of emphasis that occurs through the repetition of initial consonant letters
(or sounds) in two or more different words across successive sentences, clauses,
or phrases.
Harry Potter: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw,
and Salazar Slytherin
Shops: "Coffee Corner", "Sushi Station", "Best Buy", "busy as a bee", "dead as
a doornail", "good as gold", "right as rain", etc..
"No one standing in this house today can pass a puritanical test of purity
that some are demanding that our elected leaders take." -- Richard
Gephardt
Nattering nabobs of negativity—Spiro Agnew
Anastrophe: [uh-nas-truh-fee]
Figure of speech involving an inversion of a language's ordinary order of words;
for example, saying "smart you are" to mean "you are smart". In English, with its
settled natural word order, departure from the expected word order emphasizes
the displaced word or phrase: "beautiful" is emphasized in the City Beautiful
urbanist movement; "primeval" comes to the fore in Longfellow's line "This is the
forest primeval."
Yoda from the Star Wars series commonly uses anastrophe.
"Told you, I did. Reckless is he. Now matters are worse."
"Mind what you have learned. Save you it can."
"If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your
destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."
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