"With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." (Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream)

“The symbol of all our aspirations, one of the student leaders called her: the fruit of our struggle.” (John Simpson, “Tianamen Square”)

“But in this desert country they may see the land being rendered useless by overuse.”

(Joseph Wood Krutch, The Voice of the Desert)

Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.

. “Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys.” (John Dryden, “Absalom and Achitophel”)

The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.” (Martin Luther King, Jr., from a speech delivered in 1966)

Reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses.

Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.

Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance.

Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

"My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors." -Barack Obama

Is a scheme of parallel structure that occurs when the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length (number of words or even number of syllables).

I go, so far as the immediate moment was concerned, away.” (Henry James, The Turn of the Screw)

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

“The symbol of all our aspirations, one of the student leaders called her: the fruit of our struggle.” (John Simpson, “Tianamen Square”)

“The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees…”

“All the world’s a stage and men and women merely players…”

“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.”

"Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, and a hopeful future." (Bill Clinton, 1992 DNC Acceptance Address)

"I can't wait for Friday."

“Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization—pardon me, our whole culture (an important distinction, I’ve heard) ... how the world moves: not like an arrow, but a boomerang.” (Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man)

"Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. . . . This one a long time have I watched. . . . Never his mind on where he was." (Yoda in Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980)

Deliberate use of many conjunctions (does not involve omission, but is grouped with its opposite, asyndeton)). The effect of polysyndeton is to speed up or add a frenetic quality to the rhythm of the sentence.

Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of words, phrases, or clauses. The effects of this device are to emphasize each clause and to produce a punctuated rhythm in the sentence.

Deliberate omission of a word or of words that are readily implied by the context and must be supplied by the reader or listener. While this can make clear, economical sentences, if the understood words are grammatically incompatible, the resulting sentence may be awkward

Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words

Romeo realizes that he has killed his wife’s cousin.The audience wonders how Romeo would get out of this terrible situation?

The beginning of Romeo and Juliet gives us background knowledge.

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth." (Frank Borman, astronaut).

Beloved, by Toni Morrison is the tale of an escaped slave, who remains haunted by things in her past. It is another more modern and ground-breaking narrative work.

Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive phrases. Like anaphora, epistrophe produces a strong rhythm and emphasis.

Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance.

Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of words, phrases, or clauses. The effects of this device are to emphasize each clause and to produce a punctuated rhythm in the sentence.

deliberate use of many conjunctions (does not involve omission, but is grouped with its opposite, asyndeton)). The effect of polysyndeton is to speed up or add a frenetic quality to the rhythm of the sentence.

"There's no nation in the history of the world and no city that has seen more immigrants in less time than America. And people continue to come here in large, large numbers to seek freedom, opportunity, decency, civility." - Rudy Giuliani

"We lived and laughed and loved and left." (James Joyce, Finnegans Wake)

Repetition of the same word or words at both beginning and ending of a phrase, clause, or sentence

Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance.

"He is noticeable for nothing in the world except for the markedness by which he is noticeable for nothing."

as quoted from Edgar Allen Poe

“The symbol of all our aspirations, one of the student leaders called her: the fruit of our struggle.” (John Simpson, “Tianamen Square”)

Epistrophe is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences

Epistrophe is the repetition of the last word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences

Epistrophe is the succesive of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences

Epistrophe is the absence of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences

The repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.

"First the air is blue and then

it is bluer and then green and then

black I am blacking out and yet

my mask is powerful" Angelou

"Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, and a hopeful future." (Bill Clinton, Acceptance Address)

Deliberate use of many conjunctions (does not involve omission, but is grouped with its opposite, asyndeton)).

"Strips of tinfoil winking like people." (Sylvia Plath)

“Up the aisle, the moans and screams merged with the sickening smell of woolen black clothes worn in summer weather and green leaves wilting over yellow flowers.”

Angelou

"The gloves didn't fit. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." (Johnny Cochran, O.J.Simpson trial)

Why should white people be running the banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the hands of the white man? Why?” (Malcolm X)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary (“The Raven” Poe)

“His purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous.”

“There is even, and it is the achievement of this book, a curious sense of happiness running through its paragraphs.” (Norman Mailer, book review)

The repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.

"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 . . . we shall never surrender." (Winston Churchill, 1940)

“Miss America was not so much interested in serving herself as she was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation.”

Insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence, sending the thought off on an important tangent that has pronounced rhetorical effect

"With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." (Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream)

“The symbol of all our aspirations, one of the student leaders called her: the fruit of our struggle.” (John Simpson, “Tianamen Square”)

Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” (Winston Churchill, 1940)

“In Europe, we gave the cold shoulder to De Gaulle, and now he gives the warm hand to Mao Tse-tung.” (Richard Nixon, 1960)

"We are for each other: then

laugh, leaning back in my arms

for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis" E.E. Cummings

“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew, 6:11)

“And he to England shall along with you.” (Shakespeare, Hamlet III,iii)

“It was the meanest moment of eternity”. (Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God)

“Whales in the wake like capes and Alps/ Quaked the sick sea and snouted deep.”

“What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” William Blake