I want to make a list of tools to write. I hope to use and share the tools of speech.
That was written in iambic pentameter. One of the tools of speech.
Here is a list of others helpful rhetorical devices.
| Iambic Pentameter | Da DUM, Da Dum, Da DUM, Da DUM, Da DUM five pairs of two syllables and with the stress on the second. For example: “to be or not to be, that is the question.” |
| Allilteraion | Use the same letter for works in a phrase. The tables have turned. Cool as a cumcumber. |
| Tricolon | Lists of three. Blood, sweat and tears Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Eat, drink and Be Merry. Veni Vedi Vici |
| Epizeuxis | Repeat a word Fly Fly Fly! |
| Diacope | Repeat a word but break it up with another word. Bond, James Bond. Fly, my pretties, fly! A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse. |
| Zeugma | Using a single verb for multiple phrases: My blood sugar fell dramatically and so did I Tom like whisky, Brad vokda, and Nick crack cocaine |
| Chiasmus | Using a structure like A B B A Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure Despised if ugly, if fair, betrayed Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. |
| Anadiplosis | Repeating the last word as the first word of the next clause Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering |
| Anaphora | Starting each sentence with the same words. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. |
| Epistrophe | End each clause or sentence with the same word or phrase. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that amore. When the worlds seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine, that amore. Also Obama speech – where he said yes we can after phrases. |
| Merism | referring to parts rather than the whole: ladies and gentlemen – instead of saying audience |
| Isocolon? | Roses are Red. Violets and Blue. To err is human, to forgive is devine. A time to be born, and a time to die. (although Wikipedia speaks about it more generally again repeating a word or syllable – symmetry and parrallelism) |
For further examples and information, check out the elements of eloquence by Mark Forsyth.