Sonic rhetoric delivers messages to the reader or listener by prompting a certain reaction through auditory perception.
[5][page needed] Blow wind, swell billow and swim bark!
...with streaks of light, And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels... Cacophony refers to the use of unpleasant sounds, such as the Plosive consonants k, g, t, d, p and b, the hissing sounds sh and s, and also the affricates ch and j, in rapid succession in a line or passage, creating a harsh and discordant effect.
[3][4] Some examples: smek, thwap, kaboom, ding-dong, plop, bang and pew.
Anadiplosis involves repeating the last word(s) of one sentence, phrase or clause at or near the beginning of the next.
Anaphora is repeating the same word(s) at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases or clauses.
Symploce is a simultaneous combination of both anaphora and epistrophe, but repeating different words at the start and end.
Authors typically use this rhetorical strategy in order to emphasize a certain word that contributes to the overarching theme or idea, to create a rhythm in their writing, or to give off a witty or humorous tone.
Antithesis involves putting together two opposite ideas in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.
[12][page needed] Contrast is emphasised by parallel but similar structures of the opposing phrases or clauses to draw the listeners' or readers' attention.
But O, what damned minutes tells he o'erWho dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves!
[13][page needed] We'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news... Auxesis is arranging words in a list from least to most significant.
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'er-sways their power... Catacosmesis, the opposite, involves arranging them from most to least significant.
This can take advantage of the latter word having multiple meanings depending on context to create a clever use of language that can make the sentence and the claim thus advanced more eloquent and persuasive.
In the following examples, 2 nouns (as direct objects) are linked to the same verb which must then be interpreted in 2 different ways.
[3] He caught the train and a bad cold.I held my breath and the door for you.Dumbledore was striding serenely across the room wearing long midnight-blue robes and a perfectly calm expression.Zeugma is sometimes defined broadly to include other ways in which one word in a sentence can relate to two or more others.
[16] Fred excelled at sports; Harvey at eating; Tom with girls.Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
Discourse level rhetorical devices rely on relations between phrases, clauses and sentences.
Examples include antanagoge, apophasis, aporia, hypophora, metanoia and procatalepsis.
Amplification involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail, to emphasise what might otherwise be passed over.
[12][page needed] This allows one to call attention to and expand a point to ensure the reader realizes its importance or centrality in the discussion.
But this revolting boy, of course, Was so unutterably vile, So greedy, foul, and infantile He left a most disgusting taste Inside our mouths... Pleonasm involves using more words than necessary to describe an idea.
Within the infant rind of this weak flower Poison hath residence, and medicine power.
[4] This can be for literary effect: The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heavenWould through the airy region stream so brightThat birds would sing and think it were not night Or for argumentative effect:
I know you aren't an alcoholic, but I did notice you've replaced all the bottles in your liquor cabinet.Metanoia qualifies a statement or by recalling or rejecting it in part or full, and then re-expressing it in a better, milder, or stronger way.
All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows... By anticipating and answering a possible objection, procatalepsis allows an argument to continue while rebutting points opposing it.
Understatement, or meiosis, involves deliberately understating the importance, significance or magnitude of a subject.
The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage.A subtype of understatement is litotes, which uses negation: Heatwaves are not rare in the summer.Irony is the figure of speech where the words of a speaker intends to express a meaning that is directly opposite of the said words.
The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight thirty and still light.Personification is the representation of animals, inanimate objects and ideas as having human attributes.
The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night Simile compares two different things that resemble each other in at least one way using "like" or "as" to explain the comparison.