Parallelism

The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter.

Examples

“What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”

-William Blake

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Purpose of Paralleism

Untitled Slide

• allows speakers and writers to maintain a consistency
• create a balanced flow of ideas
• a tool for persuasion because of the repetition it uses.

Analogy

An analogy is a literary device that helps to establish a relationship based on similarities between two concepts or ideas

Examples

“If people were like rain, I was like drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

In the same way as one cannot have the rainbow without the rain, one cannot achieve success and riches without hard work.

Oxymoron

contradictory, contrasting concepts placed together

Examples

He possessed a cold fire in his eyes.