Schemes and Tropes Vocab Flashcards
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonants in two or more adjacent or nearby words (2-3).
“A cunning Canaanite!” Hosea 12:7
“For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefined, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens.” Hebrews 7:26
“A sable, silent, solemn forest stood” James Thomson, The Castle of Independence
Consonance
Repetition of media/terminal consonants in two or more adjacent/nearby words.
“An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king–/Princes, the dregs of the dull race, who flow/ Through public scorn–mud from a muddy spring–” Shelly, Sonnet: England in 1819
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.
“In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of your youth” Psalm 110:3
Shelly’s example last card too
Onomatopoeia
The use of a word whose sound echoes the sense
“A lion has roared!” Amos 3:8
“The days have crackled and gone up in smoke.” James Thomson, The Sound of Heaven
Metaphor
An implied or stated comparison between two things unlike in nature that yet have something in common
“You are my hiding place” Psalm 32:7
“From him comes the cornerstone, /From him the tent peg” Zach.10:14
“Our world is the lesson book of the universe.” DA 19
“On the final exam, several students went down in flames.”
Metonymy
The substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant
“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?”
“Wealth must pay tribute to the crown.”
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole
“This baseball team needs some strong bats”
Simile
An explicit comparison between two unlike things in nature that yet have something in common using like, as, or than
“He kept [Moses] as the apple of His eye” Deut. 32:10
“I will be like the dew to Israel” Hosea 14:5
“More to be desired are they than gold, / Yea, than much fine gold; / Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” Psalm 19:10
“He had a posture like a question mark”
Personification
Investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities.
“The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire. / The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness” Psalm 29:7, 8
“When all at once I saw a crowd, / A host of golden daffodils” Wordsworth, I wandered lonely as a cloud”
Symbol
Something that stands for itself plus something beyond itself
“Give us this day our daily bread” Matthew 6:11
“I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman!”
Anthimeria
Substitution of one part of speech for another.
“I’ll up hair thy head” Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra
Hyperbole
Intentional exaggeration for heightened effect.
“Many waters cannot quench love, / Nor can the floods drown it” Canticles 8:7
“His eloquence would split rocks”
Simple parallelism
Similar structure in a pair or series of words, phrases, or clauses
“I AM the way, the Truth, and the Life” John 16:6
“He tried to make the law clear, precise, and equitable”
Isocolon
Use of parallel elements not only similar in grammatical structure but in length (i.e., the same number of words, even the same number of syllables).
John 16:6
“His purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous.”
Polysyndenton
Many conjunctions (rather than comas) trying together phrases/clauses”
“Love your God with ally our heart and all your soul and with all your strength.” Deut. 6:5
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” Luke 9:23
“Then the kingdom and dominion, / And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, / Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High” Dan. 7:27
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matt. 28:19
“This semester I am taking English and history and mathematics and sociology and physical education.”
