Literary Figures and Figures of Thought
Logical Figures
Prolepsis
Presenting a rebuttal to anticipated arguments. Example: “Do not come to my defense; witnesses can be bought with money, favor, or authority.”
Paradox
Presenting a sharp contrast, not a contradiction. Example: “…what is admirable is to see two men, who had not perhaps been born when I suffered for their country, making charges of disqualification to be a senator, after serving in the Republic, politically and militarily…”
It is based on the union of opposing ideas.
“I live without living in me
I hope so high life
I die of not dying”
Santa Teresa de Jesus (Spanish)
Grading
Placement of phrases in ascending or descending order from a logical point of view, so ideas appear firmly chained. Example: “Santa Marta, before Morillo arrived, was subjected to reason, and without this support, Morillo would not have taken Cartagena, and the capital would have escaped his destructive scythe.”
Communication
Addressing the audience with a question, then providing the answer. Example: “Without the betrayal of Pasto, would Morillo have succeeded? Had they seen the atrocities that for three years afflicted this unfortunate land? No, gentlemen.”
Omission
A scheme where, pretending discretion, something is said clearly and indiscreetly. Example: “If I were your friend, I’d tell everyone that he is the one who stole the safe, but I will not say it, never, I realize this would be sorry one day.”
Hesitation
Expressing puzzlement and inability to articulate something. Example: “No one is less able than I to address you, but overcoming my natural shyness, I dare to do so, pushed by the enthusiasm I have.”
Mitigation
A meaningful way of saying little; implying without explicitly stating. Example: Christ just moved jobs on Calvary.
Irony
Implying the opposite of what is said. Example: “He has some value, as they usually hunt lions.”
Amplification
Presenting an idea from several points of view. Example: The progress of the world is certain, judged from the material standpoint; if looked at from the moral, there will be many who deem it inferior to other centuries, but when considered from a social perspective, the discussion grows and the chances of reaching an agreement diminish.
Conmiration
Expressing the hope that evil will befall another. Example: May you not find a lap when you’re tired.
Interjection
Revealing a violent emotion, always expressed by a vocative. Example: Oh, surprise! Ah, how much of these arguments is a lie!
Breaking the discourse to relieve an agitated mind.
“At age forty, I wanted to reread favorite authors of my youth. Oh, what pain! That disappointment! Chateaubriand, so thought-provoking! (…) The head knew yet to overcome taste (…)”
Hyperbole
Exaggeration. Example: All the people know I’m innocent.
Interrogation
Using questions to indirectly express a claim and add force. Example: Tomorrow, when I leave, how will my heart go? Pondering is not for answers, but for emphasis.
“Who has not felt some remorse at your empire, dark night? Who did not make you a noble oath? Who has not broken it with the light of day?” Jorge Marmol (Argentina)
Pomposity
Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects. Example: Rosy-fingered Aurora.
Ostentation
Putting something before God or another as witness. Example: God knows I am innocent.
Dialogism
Speaking directly to characters in a story.
Reluctance
Leaving a sentence incomplete, emphasizing what is silenced. Example: If you’re talking to Paul, how about actually knowing him?
Pathetic Figures
Supplication
Using prayer to an end. Example: Justice, severe and straight, is what I beg.
“Get me out of this death,
My God, give me life;
Do not keep me
In this bond so strong.
Look to see you die,
And do not want to live without you
I hope so high life
I die because they do not die.”
Santa Teresa de Jesus (Spain)
Curse
Expressing a strong wish for harm to befall someone. Example: May public outcry confuse justice.
“Break the sky, a thousand beams on, and with dreadful fear falling in horrid crash are shatter.” Fernando de Herrera (Spanish)
Execration
Condemning or cursing with priestly authority or on behalf of sacred things. Example: Supreme God, whose face cannot hide a man’s heart, Almighty, lift up your arm over my head.
Demonstrates passion culminating in wishing evil for oneself.
“The day perish wherein I was born, that day in darkness become; not God do it from the top, or light is lit.”
Impossible
Assuming something impossible is needed for something specific to occur. Example: Perish me at this very moment, perish a thousand times, if I serve as fuel to become distressed to see my beloved Mary.
Apostrophe
Interrupting discourse to address someone, present or absent, in the second person. Example: I was in the kitchen, right John?, when things happened.
Literary Figures
Comparison or Simile
A comparison between an object, fact, or quality and another. Example: I had a long neck like an ostrich.
Metaphor
Substituting one word for another based on similarity of meaning. Example: Blue walls, waves, Africa come and go.
Metonymy
Substituting one word for another based on temporal or spatial continuity. Example: “The White House announced…” (referring to the President)
Impersonation
Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects. Example: In a forgotten glass, a flower collapses. The city was pink and smiled sweetly.
Hyperbole
Exaggerating the properties of something. Example: Each shoe might be so grave a philistine.
Hyperbaton
Altering the logical order of words. Example: Winged horse is moving toward us. With Minaya, Jimena Valencia reach and daughters.
Anaphora
Repeating a word at the beginning of different sentences. Example: The girl does not laugh. She does not cry.
“As waves of light to kiss
flutter, lit;
As the sun the torn clouds
of fire and gold;
As the air perfumes in her lap lead and harmony;
While there is spring in the world
There will be poetry!”
Polysyndeton
Repeating a conjunction for emphasis. Example: I do not want the house or the wheel of silver.
“I hear are cars and guns
and voices and drums.
Did not spot a flash of infantry and cavalry
and dust and smoke, and gleam of steel?”
Alliteration
Repeating similar sounds in different words. Example: The princess is sad. The princess is pale. The princess is pale. The princess is sad.
“…The brief flight of a green veil… The greedy glogloteo of seagulls”
Epithet
Using specific adjectives for accurate description. Example: Light wings.
Allegory
Using several complementary metaphors to create literal and figurative meanings.
Pun
Giving special meanings to words with the same sound. Example: This is a count? Yes, hide quality and money.
Circumlocution
Presenting an idea indirectly. Example: For our iniquities, you who took the form of man… (Jesus Christ)
Figures of Thought
Figures that use ideas as an essential element.
Logic
Antithesis
Based on the contradiction of terms. Example: “The lanterns were lit and the crickets.” Garcia Lorca (Spanish)
Simile
Establishes similarities between objects. Example: “The tree is home to the birds and the roof of the tramp.”
Picturesque
Describing an object or landscape through elaborate expressions.
Description
Topography
Describing a place. Example: “When choosing a tendon land snaking across two ravines, on the slope of a hill pleasant, lightly loaded hardwood.”
Chronography
Describing a historical moment. Example: “It was the afternoon. Pale forest had the sun in his last fire, and grief felt soft, the nightingale warbled her last goodbye.”
Prosopography
Describing the outward appearance of a being. Example: “Even now, with his tall, curly beard and well cut, and bright animated eyes and unlined skin, would be accepted by many women.”
Etopeya
Describing ethical aspects. Example: “Your life is like, on the go without rest, an evangelist of civility, which converts the huge drop in six decades saw crowds feeding, freeing slaves, avi-zorando distant, fascinating harvests of passion, scenting the strange and own store with precious sandalwood from the kindness and wit.”
Guillermo León Valencia (Colombian)
Portrait
Showing both physical and mental/spiritual aspects. Example: “He came many years ago to a village in the mountains. He arrived with the irritation that appears on top chagra to doctor. Provincial flower! He could not or would not complete college. Instead he learned to exploit the superficial advantage of talent and singleness. Without being adonis, washed Indian, half white boy, helped women to live. He lives club… Exaggerated care clothing, the smell… Like you, chullita.”
Jorge Icaza (Ecuador)
Parallel
Comparing two literary portraits. Example: “…Of the exiles, was that of an ignominious, having to leave for usurpation of flow management and the other was an honor, becoming attracted to have cut flights wicked men, plague of his own country and of a nobody did memory after his departure, and the Senate moved the other dress, made public mourning and decided that she would not bowl any business to have decreed the return of Cicero…” ‘Parallel Lives’ Plutarch.
Diction
A form of expression that deletes, adds, repeats, or reverses words.
Classification
Asyndeton
Omitting conjunctions. Example: “Go, run, fly, high mountain passes, took the plain, no spur forgive, do not give peace to the iron hand shakes fulminant insane.”
Conversion
Repeating words at the end of a verse or clause. Example: “I hurt the hair and the yearning, Oh, burn! More, more, yes, yes, more! Burn me!”
Reduplication
Repeating a thought or sentence multiple times. Example: “So high, so high that it passed the roof of my house. If I could save it folds, or in the attic could be large ark.”
Onomatopoeia
Mimicking real-world sounds. Example: “The noise wheel so hoarse storm.”