Identifying Seven Rhetorical Devices (2003)
based on original texts used in NEUTERING EXERCISES
Part B
part a
part b
part c
Identifying Seven Rhetorical Devices (2003)
based on original texts used in NEUTERING
EXERCISES
Part B
part a
part b
part c
Jimmy Sungur
Personification:
“,your eyes have their silence:”
E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond”
Simile:
“though i have closed myself as fingers,”
E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond”
Catachresis:
“nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands”
E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond”
Alliteration:
“compels me with the color of its countries,”
E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond”
Hyperbole:
“nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense
fragility:”
E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond”
Pleonasm:
“i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens”
E.E. Cummings “somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond”
Anaphora:
“Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,”
“The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Shakespeare
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Jill Willoughby
1.) 1. Epiphora
2. “And then the windows failed and then I could not see to see”
3. “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” Emily Dickinson
2.) 1. Metaphor
2. “Go, boats of the blood, carry your cargo of ease to the parts of the body”
3. “Taking Aspirin” X.J. Kennedy
3.) 1. Assonance
2. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
3. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Dylan Thomas
4.) 1. Simile
2. “Lost is a puzzle of stars that breathes like water and chews like stone”
3. “Lost” Jewel Kilcher
5.) 1. Anaphora
2. “Took my time, took my chances”
3. “Eye of theTiger” Survivor
6.) 1. Analogy
2. “Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along”
3. “ I Hope You Dance” Lee Ann Womack
7.) 1. Paradox
2. “Take your time, hurry up”
3. “Come as you are” Nirvana
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Gretchen Stewart
Allegory: “Helen” (“To Helen,“ by Edgar Allen Poe)
Alliteration: “The weary, way-worn wanderer bore..,” (“To Helen,” by
Edgar Allen Poe)
Anaphora: “Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, thy Naiad airs…” (“To
Helen,” by Edgar Allen Poe)
Simile: “Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore…”
(“To Helen,” by Edgar Allen Poe)
Personification: “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.”
(“My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke)
Ploce: “The things which I have seen I now can see no more.” (“Ode:
Intimations of Immortality,” by William Wordsworth)
Apostrophe: “Oh Rose…” (“The Sick Rose,” by William Blake)
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Kelley Sanders
1. Simile- Then, the whining school boy with his
satchel And shinning morning face Creeping like a
snail unwillingly to school.
-“ All the World’s a Stage” by: William Shakespeare
{SB}
2. Anaphora- Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything.
-“All the World’s a Stage” by: William Shakespeare
{SB}
3. Assonance- “Old Age should burn and rave at close
of day Rage, rage, against the dying of the light”
-“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by: Dylan
Thomas {DC}
4. Accumulation- Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not accept the ending of your life.
-“Do Not go Gentle Into That Good Night” by: Dylan
Thomas {DC}
5. Analogy- Lost is a puzzle of stars That breathes
like water And chews like stone
-“Lost” by: Jewel Kilcher
6. Ambiguity- Come down from your fences, open the
gate.
-“Desperado” by: Eagles{KS}
7. Apostrophe- LO! In yon brilliant window- niche
How statue –like I see thee stand
The gate lamp with’n thy hand!
-“To Helen” by Edgar Allen Poe{GS)
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Sarah Dudley
1. oxymoron - "Lost" by Jewel Kilcher
Desperation: the honest recognition
Of a false truth.
2. metaphor - "Lost" by Jewel Kilcher
Fear is a bird that believes itself into extinction.
3. simile - "Lost" by Jewel Kilcher
…a puzzle of stars that breathes like water and chews like stone.
4. epiplexis - "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where
those years have gone.
5. dehortatio - "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter.
6. maxim - "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack
Never settle for the path of least resistance.
7. tricolon - "Come As You Are" by Nirvana
Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be.
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Jaquelin Powell
Hyperbole- “The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy” -
Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
Ambiguity- “My Papa’s Waltz”- the entire poem is ambiguous, it could be
interpreted in two different fashions- when his father gets drunk the two
waltz around the house or a beating he got from his father when he was drunk
that he calls a “waltz”. –Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s
Waltz”
Simile- “hung on like death”- Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
Litotes- “such waltzing was not easy”- Theodore Roethke, “My Papa’s
Waltz”
Alliteration- “The weary, way-worn wanderer bore”- Edgar Allen Poe, “To
Helen”
Allegory- Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to raom,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo! In yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy-Land!
-Edgar Allan Poe, “To Helen"
Metaphor- “Fear is a bird that believes itself
into extinction”- Jewel Kilcher, “Lost”
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