| Anadiplosis. | Define: Word that ends one clause, then acts to begin the next clause. Example: He hesitated at the door. A door to a new beginning. |
| Anaphora. | Define: Repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive lines or sentences. Example: I remember my sister. I remember my parent’s phone number. I remember the words to my favorite song. |
| Antithesis. | Define: Two opposing ideas presented in grammatically balanced statement. Example: “One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.” |
| Asyndeton. | Define: Elements are presented in a series (a list) without use of conjunctions (and, nor, etc). Example: She has provided them with candy, with popcorn, with movies. |
| Allusion. | Define: a passing reference to a literary work |
| Apostrophe | Define: speaking to something that can’t speak back |
| Chiasmus. | Define: A statement of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed.Example: Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary. |
| Hyperbole. | Define: Intentional exaggeration for effect. |
| Litotes. | Define: Understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite. Example: The scene at the car crash was not a pretty picture. |
| Metaphor. | Define: The comparison of one thing to another without the use of like or asExample: The road was a ribbon of moonlight. |
| Metonymy. | Define: Substituting the name of one object for another object closely associates with it. Example: The pen is mightier than the sword. |
| Polysyndeton. | Define: To use, for rhetorical effect, of more conjunctions than necessary or natural. Example: Susan neither smiled nor laughed nor signed nor spoke. |
| Pun. | Define: Play on words |
| Simile. | Define: Comparison using like, as |
| Syllepsis. | Define: A construction in which one word is used in two different senses (closely related to zeugma). Example: After he threw the ball, he threw a fit. |
| Synecdoche. | Define: One part of an object is used to represent the entire object. Example: George got a new set of wheels. |
| Tautology. | Define: Needless repetition which adds no meaning or understanding. Example: Let’s all work together, everyone, as a team! The game came with a free gift. |
| Simile | “… a look so piteous in purport / As if he had been loosed out of hell/ to speak of horrors…” |
| Allusion | “… she followed my poor father’s body / Like Niobe, all tears…” |
| Asyndeton | “… Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief…” |
| Allusion | “…but no more like my father than I to Hercules.” |
| Anadiplosis | “…your father lost a father, / That father lost, lost his…” |
| Pun | “A little more than kin, but less than kind.” |
| opposites; Antithesis | “Bring with thee aids from heaven or blasts from hell…” |
| Apostrophe | “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Talking to frailty) |
| Tautology (needless repetition) | “Oh horrible, oh horrible, most horrible!” |
| (Uncle dad, monarch, king) Metonomy | “The head is not more native to the heart, / The hand more instrumental to the mouth,/ Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.” |
| Metaphor | “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown.” |
| Polysyndeton | “These are but wild and whirling words, my lord!” |
| Asyndeton | “Between his legs all of his red guts hung, with the heart, the lungs, the liver, the gall bladder…” |
| Anaphora | “I have seen horsemen breaking camp. I have seen / the beginning of the assault, the march and muster, /and at times the retreat and riot. I have seen / where chargers trampled your land…” |
| Polysyndeton | ” all his back and breast and both his flanks / were figured with bright knots…” |
| Polysyndeton | “The unhealthy branches, gnarled and warped and tangled, bore poison thorns instead of fruit.” |
| Anaphora | “Some hammer at a mast, some at a rib; /some make new oars, some braid and coil new lines;/ one patches up the mainsail, one the jib.” |
| Litotes | “He / retorted with an arm blow to the face/ that seemed delivered no whit less politely.” |
| Anaphora | “Lift up your eyes, lift up your eyes and see/ him the earth swallowed…” |
AP Literary Devices in Hamlet
September 23, 2019