Literary Tropes and Rhetorical Figures Explained

Common Latin Literary Tropes

• Tempus Fugit: This motif conveys the idea that life passes quickly and is fleeting.
• Ubi Sunt: A rhetorical question regarding the fate of people from the past. It emphasizes the brevity of human life and the vanity of worldly things.
• Carpe Diem and Collige, Virgo, Rosas: These topics celebrate the joy and pleasures of the present day. They encourage living in the moment without worrying about the future, given the transience of time.
• Beatus Ille: This trope highlights the quiet, worthy character of life in the countryside, far from the bustling and frenetic city life, which is perceived as negative and harmful.
• Locus Amoenus: A description of an idyllic, pleasant natural setting. It typically features trees and their shade, a green meadow, a water source, and the songs of birds.

Phonetic Rhetorical Figures

• Alliteration: Consists of producing sensory effects through the repetition of sounds (e.g., the crackling of canes).
• Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate the sounds of nature.
• Paronomasia: The use of two words that differ by only one phoneme (e.g., danced above the straw / light lightning).

Morphosyntactic Rhetorical Figures

• Enumeration: A list of elements. It can be Normal (V, W, X, Y, and Z), Asyndeton (V, W, X, Y, Z), or Polysyndeton (V and W and X and Y and Z).
• Ellipsis: The omission of words that are understood through context (e.g., My face and yours so bright).
• Hyperbaton: The alteration of the standard grammatical order of words (e.g., Sing a song my friend instead of My friend sings a song).
• Chiasmus: Consists of elements arranged in a cross-like structure (e.g., Crane like my kite / Kite like my crane).
• Anaphora: The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses (e.g., Money makes the man / Money makes the world).
• Epiphora: The repetition of words at the end of successive clauses.
• Anadiplosis: The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next.

Semantic Rhetorical Figures

• Metaphor: A direct substitution of one concept for another (e.g., the pearls of your mouth referring to teeth).
• Comparison (Simile): Establishing a relationship between two things using 'like' or 'as' (e.g., they were like alabaster).
• Metonymy: Substituting the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant (e.g., drank two bottles).
• Personification: The attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects (e.g., poverty climbed the mountain).
• Antithesis: The use of opposite concepts to create contrast (e.g., speaking hopelessness with hope).
• Hyperbole: An exaggeration beyond realistic limits (e.g., the square of your cheeks).
• Synesthesia: The blending of different sensory fields (e.g., blank silence, combining sight and hearing).