Rhetorical Devices

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Across
  1. 1. The “repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, typically within the same sentence, for vehemence or emphasis.” Example: We are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together (We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together)
  2. 3. A warning about something that will happen later on in the narrative (usually ominous).Examples:“You said you’d be here” in The Moment I Knew foreshadows that he won’t actually show up. “Skies grew darker” in This Love foreshadows that this relationship won’t end well.
  3. 9. Two contradictory terms right next to one another.Examples:“I’ve never heard silence quite this loud” –The Story of Us “We’re a crooked love, in a straight line down” –I Wish You Would
  4. 10. A “rhetorical device that compounds words or phrases that have equivalent meanings so as to create a definite pattern.” Example: You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath (All Too Well, 10 minute version)
  5. 14. A “figure of speech in which the normal word order of the subject, the verb, and the object is changed.”Example: Bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to L.A. (Invisible String — with a bonus allusion to Taylor’s own work!)
  6. 15. The “deliberate insertion of conjunctions into a sentence” to slow the rhythm of the prose. Example: ’Til we were dead and gone and buried (All Too Well, 10 minute version)
  7. 16. The “repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words.”Example: I polish plates until they gleam and glisten (tolerate it)
  8. 17. A “figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another.” Example: Karma is my boyfriend / karma is a god / karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend (Karma)
  9. 18. A “resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables…between their vowels.” Example: Ooh, look what you made me do (Look What You Made Me Do)
Down
  1. 2. The “repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.” Example: It feels like a perfect night / For breakfast at midnight (22)
  2. 4. The “simple repeating of a word, within a short space of words (including in a poem), with no particular placement of the words to secure emphasis.” Example: I forget their names now / I’m so very tame now / Never be the same now, now (…Ready for It?)
  3. 5. Often “sentences [that are] interrupted midway, where there is a change in the syntactical structure of the sentence.” Example: Look what you just made me — Ooh, look what you made me do (Look What You Made Me Do)
  4. 6. A “figure of speech that directly compares two things” using “comparison words such as ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘so’, or ‘than’.” Example: When I felt like I was an old cardigan / under someone’s bed / you put me on and said I was your favorite (cardigan)
  5. 7. The “juxtaposed repetition of words with similar roots or speech sounds within a phrase or sentence.”Example: That you never loved me, or her / Or anyone, or anything (I Knew You Were Trouble)
  6. 8. A “figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from an unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly.”Example: ’Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter (Love Story)
  7. 11. Repeating “a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.”Example: Is it cool that I said all that / Is it chill that you’re in my head (Delicate)
  8. 12. Two dissimilar things side by side, used to emphasize the contrast.Examples:“I’ve been Miss Misery since your goodbye / And you’re Mr Perfectly Fine” –Mr Perfectly Fine “The rest of the world was black and white / And we were in screaming color” –Out of The Woods
  9. 13. The “use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech.” Example: You search in every model’s bed for something greater (Is It Over Now?)