A concise and fun read about "techniques for making a single phrase striking and memorable just by altering the wording. Not by saying something different, but by saying something in a different way.". Forsyth admits this is a small (yet highly effective) part of writing, the same way that use of spices is in cooking. He then goes through 30-some literary devices and talks through them in a witty and engaging way. I've taken the liberty to shorten each of his chapters into a single paragraph, so it does take the joy out of it. ### [Alliteration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliteration) Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. "Captain Crunch," "Baby out with bathwater," or "Stop the Steal." > “But if you say, ‘Full fathom five thy father lies,’ you will be considered the greatest poet who ever lived. Express precisely the same thought any other way—e.g. ‘your father’s corpse is 9.144 metres below sea level’—and you’re just a coastguard with some bad news.” ### [Polyptoton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyptoton) uses words derived from the same root. “But me no buts,” “You’ve hissed your last, hiss,” or Hebrew *“חוד חידה ומשל משל”*. > “Alters the verb, alteration the noun. Remover the noun, remove the verb.” ### [Antithesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antithesis) Antithesis contrasts opposing ideas. Dickens’ *“best of times, worst of times.”* **Progressio** strings antitheses together. >“For though one antithesis is grand, a long list is divine… It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” ### [Merism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merism) Merism describes a whole by listing its parts. “Ladies and gentlemen” or perhaps the most classical one: *"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". More punchy than "we shall fight literally everywhere OK?", right?* ### **[Synesthesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia_(rhetorical_device))** Synesthesia mixes sensory metaphors, such as describing sound with visual terms. Examples: “harmonious colors,” “silky voice.” Sound and sight (top-tier senses) can describe touch, smell, or taste; the reverse is rare. ### **[Aposiopesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aposiopesis)** Aposiopesis breaks off speech abruptly. Examples: “Clean your room, or else…” or trailing off mid-thought. > “If you’re too overcome to even finish your sentence… you must really mean what you’re not saying… I’m sorry. I cannot type. My fingers are crying.” ### **[Hyperbaton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaton)** Hyperbaton disrupts standard word order for emphasis. Examples: Yoda’s speech (“Judge me by my size, do you?”), “Happy-go-lucky.” > “Tolkien wrote ‘green great dragon’ but was corrected… English word order is strict: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun.” > “Bish-bash-bosh, tic-tac-toe… ablaut reduplication (I-A-O order) explains why we say ‘flip-flop’ not ‘flop-flip.’ > “Well, let me remind you, Mr. Addison, that one case does not a detective make.” To which the Bruce Willis character replies: “Well, let me remind you, Ms. Hayes, that I hate it when you talk backwards.” ### **[Anadiplosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadiplosis)** Anadiplosis repeats the last word of a clause to start the next. Examples: *“Thought creates action, action creates habit, habit creates character…”* >The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story. And it is, but only when anadiplosis is on hand. The general who became a slave who became a gladiator who defied an emperor would sound like a rather incoherent nursery rhyme. ### **[Parataxis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parataxis) vs. [Hypotaxis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotaxis)** Parataxis uses short, disconnected sentences. Hypotaxis employs long, nested sentences. > “Parataxis is like this. It’s good, plain English. It’s one sentence. Then it’s another sentence. It’s direct. It’s farmer’s English. You don’t want to buy my cattle. They’re good cattle. You don’t know cattle. I’m going to have a drink. Then I’m going to break your jaw. I’m a paratactic farmer. My cattle are the best in England. > [...] > The alternative, should you, or any writer of English, choose to employ it (and who is to stop you?) is, by use of subordinate clause upon subordinate clause, which itself may be subordinated to those clauses that have gone before or after, to construct a sentence of such labyrinthine grammatical complexity that, like Theseus before you when he searched the dark Minoan mazes for that monstrous monster, half bull and half man, or rather half woman for it had been conceived from, or in, Pasiphae, herself within a Daedalian contraption of perverted intention, you must unravel a ball of grammatical yarn lest you wander forever, amazed in the maze, searching through dark eternity for a full stop. That’s hypotaxis, and it used to be everywhere. ### **[Diacope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacope)** Diacope repeats a word with interruptions. Examples: “Bond, James Bond,” “Sunday, bloody Sunday", "Win, Baby, Win", "Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead" > “Vocative diacope: ‘Live, baby, live.’ Elaboration: ‘From sea to shining sea.’ A simple trick for instant memorability." ### **[Rhetorical Questions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question)** - **Erotesis**: Assumes an answer, e.g., *“Was I not born in the realm?”* - **Epiplexis**: Accusatory, e.g., *“How could you be so mean?”* - **Hypophora**: Self-answered, e.g., *“Can we kick it? Yes we can!”* - **Anacoenosis**: Suggestive, *"Why don't we do it in the bed"* - **Subjectio**: is a series of rhetorical questions: > Subjectio traps listeners: "Does Mr. Wallace look like a bitch?" [...] we come to the climactic question of the subjectio: “Then why you trying to fuck him like a bitch?” ### **[Hendiadys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendiadys)** Hendiadys splits one idea into two nouns. Examples: *“Going to the noise and the city”* (instead of “noisy city”), *“nice and toasty.”* ### **[Epistrophe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistrophe)** Epistrophe repeats words at the end of clauses. Examples: *“Fuck you, pay me,” “Red America or Blue America… united STATES of America.”, "you might be a redneck"* > When you end each sentence with the same word, that’s epistrophe. When each clause has the same words at the end, that’s epistrophe. When you finish each paragraph with the same word, that’s epistrophe. ### **[Tricolon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(writing))** Tricolon uses three parallel phrases. Examples: *“Lies, damned lies, statistics,” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”* [[Rule of three]] ### **[Epizeuxis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epizeuxis)** Epizeuxis repeats a word immediately for intensity. Examples: *“Simple, simple, simple,” “Yes, yes, yes!”* > “Epizeuxis screams simplicity… Dickinson’s ‘Rage, rage’ shows how minimalism can devastate.” ### **[Zeugma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeugma) / [Syllepsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllepsis)** Zeugma uses one verb for two clauses (*“He prefers dogs, she cats”*). Syllepsis is a special Zeugma which makes it into a pun as it alters meaning: *“Barely room to lay my hat and friends.”* > In its simplest form syllepsis is just a pun. There’s a story that Dorothy Parker once commented on her small apartment, saying: “I’ve barely room enough to lay my hat and a few friends.” > [...] > Syllepsis can get out of hand… Up your nose, on your nerves and used too much.” ### **[Isocolon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isocolon)** Isocolon balances clauses in structure/length. Examples: “Roses are red, violets are blue,” > With isocolon one seems reasonable; without isocolon one seems hasty. With isocolon language acquired a calm rhythm, without isocolon prose became a formless heap. On the one hand the figure could describe antithesis with its graceful contrasts, on the other hand the trick could show emphasis through its gentle repetitions. O for the classical balance! Woe to the modern mess! ### **[Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox)** Paradox pairs contradictory truths. Examples "Labour isn't working", "Life's a bitch and then you die" > In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. ### **[Chiasmus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiasmus)** Chiasmus inverts structure symmetrically. Examples: “Ask not what your country…,” “My mind on my money, money on my mind.” > Chiasmus can also be used for something very like a pun. Mae West said, “It’s not the men in my life, it’s the life in my men,” where life is being used in two different senses (CV vs. vigour) ### **[Catachresis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catachresis)** Catachresis uses jarring, illogical metaphors. Examples: *“I’ll speak daggers,” “Dance me to the end of love.”* > “Catachresis is bam! A verbal slap: ‘Rent is a fuck' ### **[Litotes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litotes)** Litotes understates via negation. Examples: *“Not bad,” “It’s not unusual.”* > “Hirohito’s ‘war situation… not necessarily to Japan’s advantage’—litotes for colossal failure.” > [...] > Litotes isn’t the best figure to use when you’re trying to be grand. Litotes does not stir the soul, it’s more suited to stirring tea. ### **[Transferred Epithet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypallage)** Transferred epithets shift adjectives to unlikely nouns. Examples: *“Nervous cigarette,” “lonely road.”* > So instead of writing “The nervous man smoked a cigarette” you write “The man smoked a nervous cigarette" [...] Adjectives cling to objects but describe people: ‘weary miles,’ ‘lost highways.’ ### **[Pleonasm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleonasm)** Pleonasm adds redundant words. Examples: *“Free gift,” “see with one’s eyes.”, "a furious rage". ### **[Epanalepsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epanalepsis)** Epanalepsis repeats words at the start and end. Examples: “The king is dead; long live the king". > It’s a circular song, which ends where it began. And it even does it at a smaller level. The first verse begins and ends with the same word—“yesterday”—and so does the second—“suddenly”—and so does the third—“yesterday” again. But that’s probably the song’s strength. It’s about a man who can’t think of anything else but yesterday, and the words mirror that rather beautifully. ### **[Adynaton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adynaton)** Adynaton uses absurd impossibility. Examples: *“When pigs fly,” “camel through a needle’s eye.”* > “Auden’s ‘Teach me to hear mermaids singing’… adynata as romantic hyperbole.” ### **[Prolepsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolepsis_(literary))** Prolepsis anticipates objections. Examples: *“Smart guy, that John”* (postpositive adjective). > “Prolepsis condenses characterization… ‘ ### **[Congeries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congeries)** Congeries piles synonyms for intensity. Examples: Liturgical lists (*“Ashamnu, bagadnu…”*), insults (*“Paralytic sycophants… playboy soldiers”*). > “Overwhelm with sheer volume… Congeries is verbal artillery.” ### [Scesis Onomaton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scesis_onomaton) Scesis Onomaton omits verbs for bluntness. Examples: *“Space: the final frontier,” “Finders keepers.”* > “A verbless rule feels eternal… Scenes set without action.” ### [Anaphora](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphora_(rhetoric)) Anaphora repeats words at clause starts. Examples: *“I have a dream,” “For he is tenacious… For he is a mixture…”* . Forsyth thinks anaphora is the heavyweight literary device. >Hendiadys has her eccentric charm, polyptoton slaves away in the background, catachresis wanders around smashing things up, but anaphora has all the power. [...] > >It’s so preposterously easy to do. It’s so preposterously easy to pick some words. It’s so preposterously easy to repeat them. Everyone can do it. Everyone can start a sentence the same way. It takes no skill. [...] > >Do you remember Martin Luther King and his dream? Do you remember what the dream was? All the details? I mean, I’m sure you remember the speech in general. But what three states are named? No? Nobody remembers. ### Numerology **[Numerology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology)** uses symbolic numbers. Examples: *“Five fathoms deep,” “13 apostles.”* > “The albatross’s ‘nine fathoms deep’… specificity implies mythic resonance.” ## Summing it up Now, I've asked Claude to take the top two paragraphs, and rephrase them using some literary devices from above, here's what it came up with: > A crisp and crafty guide to making phrases unforgettable—not by reinventing the message, but by remixing its melody. Forsyth argues that language, like cooking, thrives on artful _seasoning_: a sprinkle of anadiplosis here, a dash of chiasmus there. Why settle for “we’ll fight everywhere” when merism declares, “we’ll fight on beaches, streets, and hills”? > > This book unpacks 30 such tools with wit, though my summary sacrifices his savory storytelling for speed—like swapping a slow-simmered stew for instant broth. > > Forsyth’s feast of techniques proves that memorability isn’t magic. It’s mechanics. A well-placed diacope (“Bond, _James_ Bond”) or a sly antithesis (“best of times, worst of times”) can transform flat prose into fireworks. But beware: stripping his chapters to summaries is ironic alchemy. To teach the art of enchantment, he must _be_ enchanting—something my CliffsNotes can’t quite… cook up. Not too shabby, is it? (Full clippings [[The Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth(annotated)|here]]) #published 2025-01-18