All Nonfiction
- Bullying
- Books
- Academic
- Author Interviews
- Celebrity interviews
- College Articles
- College Essays
- Educator of the Year
- Heroes
- Interviews
- Memoir
- Personal Experience
- Sports
- Travel & Culture
All Opinions
- Bullying
- Current Events / Politics
- Discrimination
- Drugs / Alcohol / Smoking
- Entertainment / Celebrities
- Environment
- Love / Relationships
- Movies / Music / TV
- Pop Culture / Trends
- School / College
- Social Issues / Civics
- Spirituality / Religion
- Sports / Hobbies
All Hot Topics
- Bullying
- Community Service
- Environment
- Health
- Letters to the Editor
- Pride & Prejudice
- What Matters
- Back
Summer Guide
- Program Links
- Program Reviews
- Back
College Guide
- College Links
- College Reviews
- College Essays
- College Articles
- Back
Over-Complication
December 1, 2015
Periphrasis, consonance, and hyperbole,
Antithesis, asyndeton, and metonymy—
These names are absurd
For plays on some words;
It’s obscurity at its epitome!
© Sean C., Princeton, IL
Similar Articles
Previous Next
JOIN THE DISCUSSION
This article has 0 comments.
In AP English class this year, I had to memorize an extensive list of "literary rhetorical devices" that are commonly used by the best and most famous writers and speakers. As soon as a looked at the list for the first time, I was speechless at the dozens of names I couldn't even pronounce! All of these terms are some sort of play on words (for example, asyndeton is when conjunction[s] are omitted for a dramatic effect, and antithesis is when two opposite ideas/things are placed next to each other in a sentence while including parallel sentence structure). The elusiveness of these seemingly absurd names prompted the inspiration for this limerick.