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And when, after a long while, this storm had passed, the maid was seen; and she cried aloud with the sharp cry of a bird in its bitterness,-even as when, within the empty nest, it sees the bed stripped of its nestlings. So she also, when she saw the corpse bare, lifted up a voice of wailing, and called down curses on the doers of that deed.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage contains which literary device?
Simile is the correct literary device. This type of simile is called a "submerged simile" oftentimes, because it does not contain the words "like" or "as" as you would normally expect to accompany a simile. The writer uses the submerged simile to compare "the maid" to a bird that discovers its nest to be empty.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 462-469, Fifth century BCE)
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Yet I would have thee know that o'er-stubborn spirits are most often humbled; 'tis the stiffest iron, baked to hardness in the fire, that thou shalt oftenest see snapped and shivered; and I have known horses that show temper brought to order by a little curb.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage employs which of the following literary devices?
This excerpt contains multiple metaphors: it compares a heart breaking to iron breaking and to wild horses being tamed.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 520-525, Fifth century BCE)
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1 Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
2 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
3 And then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
4 Signifying nothing.
(1611)
What literary device is employed in the passage?
The writer compares life to a shadow that struts. This is a metaphor because it compares life to a shadow but doesn't use 'like' or 'as' (like a simile would).
(Passage adapted from Shakespeare's Macbeth, V.iv.23-28)
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I saw thee once—once only—years ago:
I must not say how many—but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven, (5)
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe— (10)
In line 6, what is “silvery-silken” an example of?
This is alliteration, the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words. Polysyndeton is the excessive use of conjunctions (e.g. “I went and I picked up the paper and I read it over and finally I crumpled it up”). Pleonasm is the addition of unnecessary or redundant words (e.g. “the quiet soundless night”). Telegraphic and periodic sentences are, as it sounds, devices that apply to entire sentences and not just single phrases.
Passage adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” (1831)
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MERCUTIO:
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies (5)
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep…
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lover's brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees… (10)
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit…
(1597)
What literary device can be found in line 12?
In the line “And then dreams he of smelling out a suit,” we see the inversion of the normal subject-verb order (“he dreams”) to the unusual verb-subject order (“dreams he”). This is the definition of anastrophe. Anaphora is the repetition of the beginning of a clause, while epistrophe is the repetition of the end of a clause at the end of several clauses in a row (e.g. “I like strawberry ice cream, I buy chocolate ice cream, I eat all kinds of ice cream”). Apostrophe, on the other hand, is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision; it is sometimes marked with “…” but sometimes not.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597)
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HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
Lines 5-6 are an example of which literary device?
In lines 5-6, we have the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (e.g. “She expected nothing, hoped for everything, and received something”). Parenthetical speech would be an aside, a remark set off by parentheses, em dashes, or other punctuation. Asyndeton denotes a lack of conjunction words (e.g. “I came, I saw, I conquered”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
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HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
Lines 12-13 are an example of which literary device?
Rhetorical questions, or questions not designed to be answered literally, are what we see in lines 12-13. Imperative voice is the use of commands, and a cliché is a phrase that’s become trite or worn out from overuse (e.g. “fast as lightning”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision; it is sometimes marked with “…” but sometimes not. Antithesis is a contrast or direct opposite to something.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
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HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
The lines “Yet I, / A dull and muddy-mettled rascal” are an example of all but which of the following literary devices?
Here, we have assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) in “dull” and “muddy.” We also have consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) and alliteration (repetition of sounds at the beginning of words) in “muddy-mettled.” Lastly, this is an epithet, a short and somewhat scurrilous description of a character.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What literary device can be found in lines 6-8?
In lines 6-8 we have a literary allusion or reference to Penelope, Saba, and Lucifer, all characters from other works of literature. Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”). Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (e.g. “a bitter debtor”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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HENRY V: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me (5)
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks (10)
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(1600)
What literary device can be seen in line 4?
The repetition of the beginning of each clause (“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”) is an example of anaphora. Antimetabole, similar to chiasmus, is the repetition and transposition of words (e.g. Dr. Seuss’s “I meant what I said and I said what I meant”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision, while polysyndeton is the excessive use of conjunctions. Aposiopesis is the sudden, deliberate breaking-off of a line of writing or speech for deliberate effect (e.g. “When your father gets home…”).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1600)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What other literary device can be found in lines 6-8?
Here we have parallelism, the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (usually undertaken for emphasis or to achieve a pleasing sound). Synecdoche is a specific type of metonymy in which the real word for something is replaced by a word for a part of that thing (e.g. someone saying they need a “hand” when they really need the entire person’s help). Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”). Litotes, on the other hand, is the deliberate use of understatement or double negatives. Epistles are letters, and epistolary is an adjective that describes the use of letters as a storytelling device in a larger narrative.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
What literary device can be found in line 2?
The answer choices here are largely similar. “Marriage is but a ceremonial toy” is a metaphor, a comparison that does not employ “like” or “as.” Don’t mistake this for a simile, a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g. “the still pond is like a looking glass”). An allegory is an extended metaphor (e.g. a metaphor that takes up the entire passage), as is a conceit. Paradoxes are contradictory statements, something that seems impossible (e.g. Odysseus’ “I am no man” in The Odyssey).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. (5)
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
(1604)
The beginning of lines 5-7 can be seen as an example of what literary device?
With the repetition of “and,” we can tell that this is polysyndeton, the excessive use of conjunctions. (It could also be considered anaphora, repetition of the beginnings of subsequent clauses). It is not epanalepsis (chiasmus), oxymoron (contradictory term), or redundancy. It is also not prolepsis (flash forward).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be. (5)
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.
(1604)
Lines 4-5 contain an example of what literary device?
In these lines we have an example of the relatively rare chiasmus: the use of a crisscross or reverse structure in a sentence or paragraph. Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the meaning and syntax of one line are carried over and finished in the next line (e.g. Robert Frost’s “And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it”). Imagery is language that calls upon vivid sensory descriptions (e.g. Gerard Manley Hopkins “a candycoloured… a gluegold-brown / Marbled river, boisterously beautiful”). Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that mimics the sound of the thing it is describing (e.g. “pop” or “buzz”).
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604)
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I saw thee once—once only—years ago:
I must not say how many—but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven, (5)
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe— (10)
What literary device can be seen in lines 8-9?
We can see that lines 9 continues a thought begun in line 8 without any intermediary punctuation: “Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand / Roses that grew in an enchanted garden.” The continuation of a thought or syntax across multiple lines of poetry is known as enjambment.
Passage adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” (1831)
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Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs—commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
Of what is the phrase “it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off” an example?
Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”), and it’s the technique used here. The narrator in question is probably not actually knocking the hats off the heads of strangers in the street; he’s merely using the phrase to describe his general frustration and churlishness. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (e.g. “a bitter debtor”), while assonance is the repetition of similar sounds at the beginning of multiple words (e.g. “two torn tulips”). An anecdote is a short, often humorous story. Brevity is the use of a concise, terse style. While Melville is known for many things, brevity is certainly not one of them.
Passage adapted from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick; or, the Whale (1851).
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It was a fine autumn morning; the early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields; advancing on to the lawn, I looked up and surveyed the front of the mansion. It was three storeys high, of proportions not vast, though considerable: a gentleman’s manor-house, not a nobleman’s seat: battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look. …Farther off were hills: not so lofty as those round Lowood, nor so craggy, nor so like barriers of separation from the living world; but yet quiet and lonely hills enough, and seeming to embrace Thornfield with a seclusion I had not expected to find existent so near the stirring locality of Millcote. A little hamlet, whose roofs were blent with trees, straggled up the side of one of these hills; the church of the district stood nearer Thornfield: its old tower-top looked over a knoll between the house and gates.
I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yet listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying the wide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place it was for one lonely little dame like Mrs. Fairfax to inhabit, when that lady appeared at the door.
“What! out already?” said she. “I see you are an early riser.” I went up to her, and was received with an affable kiss and shake of the hand.
(1847)
What literary device does paragraph 2 employ?
Note the excessive use of conjunction words in the following clauses: “I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yet listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying the wide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place it was…” This is polysyndeton, the excessive use of conjunctions. Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”). Anastrophe is the purposeful inversion of normal word order in a clause or sentence (e.g. “forsake me not” instead of “do not forsake me”). Metaphor is a comparison that does not employ “like” or “as” (e.g. “the queen is a ferocious lion”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”).
Passage adapted from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. (1847)
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It was a fine autumn morning; the early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields; advancing on to the lawn, I looked up and surveyed the front of the mansion. It was three storeys high, of proportions not vast, though considerable: a gentleman’s manor-house, not a nobleman’s seat: battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look. …Farther off were hills: not so lofty as those round Lowood, nor so craggy, nor so like barriers of separation from the living world; but yet quiet and lonely hills enough, and seeming to embrace Thornfield with a seclusion I had not expected to find existent so near the stirring locality of Millcote. A little hamlet, whose roofs were blent with trees, straggled up the side of one of these hills; the church of the district stood nearer Thornfield: its old tower-top looked over a knoll between the house and gates.
I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yet listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying the wide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place it was for one lonely little dame like Mrs. Fairfax to inhabit, when that lady appeared at the door.
“What! out already?” said she. “I see you are an early riser.” I went up to her, and was received with an affable kiss and shake of the hand.
(1847)
What literary device does the follow phrase (sentence 4) employ? “A little hamlet, whose roofs were blent with trees, straggled up the side of one of these hills…”
To say that the hamlet “straggled” up the hills is to give an inanimate object a human quality: personification. Epiphany is a sudden realization, often experienced by a character at the end of a short story, that changes someone’s life. Caricature is a cartoonish or exaggerated portrait of a person. A quatrain is a four-line unit of poetry (e.g. a four-line stanza). A soliloquy is a long monologue that, in drama, specifically refers to a monologue in which no other characters are present on the stage (e.g. Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” speech).
Passage adapted from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. (1847)
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… The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the present phase of the town. I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor—who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with such a stately port, and made so large a figure, as a man of war and peace—a stronger claim than for myself, whose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known. He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. He was likewise a bitter persecutor; as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity towards a woman of their sect, which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds, although these were many. His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his dry old bones, in the Charter-street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust! I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being.
(1850)
Of what literary device is the underlined sentence an example?
Hyperbole is the use of extreme exaggeration (e.g. “this suitcase weighs a ton”), and this sentence’s assertion that blood is literally staining the narrator’s ancestor is a clear example of exaggeration. Verisimilitude is the appearance of reality or truth (without necessarily being actually real or true). Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”). Anastrophe is the purposeful inversion of normal word order in a clause or sentence (e.g. “forsake me not” instead of “do not forsake me”). A cliché is a phrase that’s become trite or worn out from overuse (e.g. “fast as lightning”).
Passage adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. (1850)
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… The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the present phase of the town. I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor—who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with such a stately port, and made so large a figure, as a man of war and peace—a stronger claim than for myself, whose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known. He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. He was likewise a bitter persecutor; as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity towards a woman of their sect, which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds, although these were many. His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain, indeed, that his dry old bones, in the Charter-street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled utterly to dust! I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being.
(1850)
What literary device appears in the underlined sentence?
This passage omits most of its conjunctions, which makes it an example of asyndeton. This is the opposite of polysyndeton, the excessive use of conjunctions (e.g. “I went and I picked up the paper and I read it over and finally I crumpled it up”). Oxymoron is a simple contradictory term (e.g. “ice water”). Telegraphic sentence refers to any concise sentence (usually five or fewer words in length) that omits unnecessary words and parts of speech. A periodic sentence, on the other hand, is one in which the main clause and important idea comes at the very end.
Passage adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. (1850)
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