Figures of Speech

60 Ways To Turn A Phrase

Arthur Quinn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 1995
• ISBN:
  9781136784989
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Writing is not like chemical engineering. The figures of speech should not be learned the same way as the periodic table of elements. This is because figures of speech are not about hypothetical structures in things, but about real potentialities within language and within ourselves. The "figurings" of speech reveal the apparently limitless plastic

VIII

Repetition Again

GERTRUDE STEIN, long after she left Oakland, summed up her philosophy of life memorably: “There ain’t any answer. There ain’t going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.” If she had said simply “Life doesn’t make sense,” her remark would not have been remembered, for people—rightly or wrongly—say that about life all the time.

Her statement is most striking in its repetition of words from one sentence to another. The most elaborate terminology for figures of repetition was designed to deal with just such a passage as Stein’s. The figures are defined by where in the successive sentences or clauses the repeated word or phrase appears. To begin three sentences with “There” (or two with “There ain’t”) is an anaphora.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Ps. 23:2

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

Zeph. 1:15

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Matt. 5:3

Through me the way unto the woeful city,

Through me the way to eternal woe,

Through me the way among people lost.

Dante

This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars...

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

Shakespeare, R II 2.1.40

Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!

KJ 2.1.561

Was ever woman in this humor woo’d?

Was ever woman in this humor won?

R III 1.2.229

Some mute unglorious Milton here may rest

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood

Gray

Everything is good when it leaves the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in the hands of man.

Rousseau

She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.

Mark Twain

They streamed aboard over three gangways, they streamed in urged by faith and the hope of paradise, they streamed in with a continuous tramp and shuffle of bare feet without a word, a murmur or a look back.

Conrad

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, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Churchill

To end four sentences with “answer” (or two with “any answer”) is an epistrophe.

O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.

Ps. 115:9

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1 Cor. 13:11

The grove of Angita lamented you,

The glassy watered Fuccinus lamented you,

All limpid lakes lamented you.

Virgil

If you the sea held, I would follow you, my wife, until me also the sea held.

Ovid

For truth is one, and right is ever one.

Spenser

Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer,

Conspired against our God with Lucifer,

And are forever damned with Lucifer

Marlow

I’ll have my bond!

Speak not against my bond!

I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.

Shakespeare, MV 3.3.4

Julia: They do not love that do not show their love.

Lucetta: O! they love least that let men know their love.

TGV 1.2.31

Why I should fear I know not,

Since guiltiness I know not; but yet I feel I fear.

O 5.2.38

Poetry is certainly something more than good sense, but it must be good sense...just as a palace is more than a house but it must be a house.

Coleridge

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live. It is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

Macaulay

Men have never been good, they are not good, they never will be good.

Barth

If we began successive sentences with “there” and ended them with “answer,” we would be using symploce.

Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark: and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way: and all the people shall say, Amen.. ..Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast: and all the people shall say, Amen.

Deut. 27:16

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they of the seed of Abraham? So am I.

2 Cor. 11:22

Who are they who have so often broken treaties? The Carthaginians. Who are they who have waged war with such atrocious cruelty? The Carthaginians. Who are they who have laid Italy to waste? The Carthaginians. Who are they who pray for pardon? The Carthaginians.

Cicero

Son: How will my mother for a father’s death

Take on with me, and ne’er be satisfied!

Father: How will my wife for slaughter of my son

Shed seas of tears, and ne’er be satisfied!

King Henry: How will the country for these woeful chances

Misthink the King, and not be satisfied!

Shakespeare, 3 H VI 2.5.103

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done,

That may to thee do ease and grace to me,

Speak to me.

Ham. 1.1.128

I’ll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.

AY LI 3.2.309

There are, of course, more forms of repetition than are dreamt of in Gertrude Stein’s philosophy. We could e...