Examples—"A Scotch mist becomes a shower; and a shower, a storm; and a storm, a tempest; and a tempest, thunder and lightning; and thunder and lightning, heavenquake and earthquake." "Then virtue became silent, heartsick, pined away, and died."
Allusion is that use of language whereby in a word or words we recall some interesting incident or condition by resemblance or contrast.
Examples—"Give them the Amazon in South America and we'll give them the Mississippi in the United States."
After the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Hancock remarked to his fellow signers that they must all hang together. "Yes," said Franklin "or we shall all hang separately."
The allusion in this case turns to a pun, which is a play upon words.
"And the Doctor told the Sexton
And the Sexton tolled the bell."
A continued allusion and resemblance in style becomes a parody.
Example—
"Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes, or give sigh for sigh.
Ill not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on thy stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping, go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead."
Parody—
"Tis the last golden dollar, left shining alone;
All its brilliant companions are squandered and gone;
No coin of its mintage reflects back its hue,
They went in mint juleps, and this will go too!
I'll not keep thee, thou lone one, too long in suspense;
Thy brothers were melted, and melt thou, to pence!
I'll ask for no quarter, I'1] spend and not spare,
Till my old tattered pocket hangs centless and bare."
"Ancient maiden lady anxiously remarks,
That there must be peril 'mong so many sparks:
Roguish-looking fellow, turning to the stranger.
Says it's his opinion she is out of danger."—Saxe.
Exclamation is a figure of speech used to express more strongly the emotions of the speaker.
Examples—"Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!"
" How poor, how rich, how abject, how august
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
Distinguished link in being's endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
A beam ethereal, sullied and absorbed!
Though sullied and dishonored, still divine!
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust:
A worm! a god! I tremble at myself,
And in myself am lost."
Interrogation is a rhetorical figure by which the speaker puts opinions in the form of questions for the purpose of expressing thought more positively and vehemently without expectation of the questions being answered.
Examples—"He that planned the ear shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?" "O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?"
"But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? * * * Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"
"Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansions call the fleeting breath?
Can Honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death?"
Euphemism (u-fe-miz-em) is a word or sentence so chosen and expressed as to make a disagreeable fact sound more pleasantly than if told in plain language.
Examples—"Deceased" for "dead;" "stopping payment," instead of "becoming bankrupt;" "falling asleep," instead of "dying;" "you labor under a mistake," for "you lie;" "the does not keep very correct accounts," instead of "he cheats when he can;" "she certainly displays as little vanity in her personal appearance as any young lady I ever saw;" for "she is an intolerable slattern."
" I see Anacreon laugh and sing;
His silver tresses breathe perfume;
His cheeks display a second spring
Of roses taught by wine to bloom."
Apostrophe like the exclamation is the sudden turning away, in the fullness of emotion, to address some other person or object. In this we address the absent or dead as if present or alive, and the inanimate as if living.
This figure of speech usually indicates a high degree of excitement.
Examples—
"O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?"
Thus King David, on hearing of the death of Absalom, exclaims,!O, my son Absalom, my son, my son!"
Ossian's Address to the Moon, is one of the most beautiful illustrations of the apostrophe.
Daughter of heaven, fair art thou! The silence of thy face is pleasant. Thou comest forth in loveliness. The stars attend thy blue steps in the East. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O Moon! and brighten their dark-brown sides. Whois like thee in heaven, daughter of the night? The stars are ashamed in thy presence, and turn aside their sparkling eyes. Whither dost thou retire from thy course, when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Hast thou thy hall like Ossian? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief? Have thy sisters fallen from heaven? and are they who rejoiced with thee at night nomore? Yes, they have fallen, fair light! and often dost thou retire to mourn. But thou thyself shall one night fail, and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads; they who in thy presence were astonished will rejoice."
"Thou lingering star with less'ning ray,
That lov'st to greet the early morn,
Again thou usher'st in the day
My Mary from my soul was torn.
O Mary! dear departed shade!"
Vision is a figure of rhetoric by which the speaker represents the objects of his imagination as actually before his eyes and present to his senses.
Examples—"Soldiers! from the tops of yonder pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you!"
"We behold honses and public edifices wrapt in flames; we hear the crash of roofs falling in, and one general uproar proceeding from a thousand different voices; we see some flying they know not whither, others hanging over the last embraces of their wives and friends; we see the mother tearing from the ruffian's grasp her helpless babe, and the victors cutting each others' throats wherever the plunder is most inviting."
