Litotes

Litotes is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This positive feature, however, is somewhat diminished in quality as compared with a synonymous expression making a straightforward assertion of the positive feature. Litotes is a means by which this na­tural logical and linguistic property of negation can be strengthened. The two senses of the litotic expression, negative and positive, serve a definite stylistic purpose. A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as in not unlike, not unpromising, not displeased and the like. Litotes is used in different styles of speech, excluding those which may be called the matter-of-fact styles, like official style and scien­tific prose. In poetry it is sometimes used to suggest that language fails to adequately convey the poet's feelings and therefore he uses negations to express the inexpressible

3. Define the stylistic devices which are used in the following sentences:

~~The stars danced playfully in the moonlight sky.-personification.

. 'He is a man of cloth'-metonomy

~~Fish can get seasick.

My love is like a red, red rose.-simile

~~A Farewell to Tobacco

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

~~This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,-quotation

Dry lake

~~"She arrived in a taxi and a flaming rage."-zeugma

. In an age of pressurized happiness, we sometimes grow insensitive to subtle joys.-epithet

~~I heard a knock at the door.

At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth of thieves and murderers

~~"She arrived in a taxi and a flaming rage."-zeugma

Eek ! I saw a mouse.

~~. "The theme of the Egg Hunt is 'learning is delightful and delicious'--as, by the way, am I."-zeugma

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold / A sheep hook-metaphor

~~Stand down.

The Three Enemies-irony

~~.She is as thin as a toothpick.-simile

That is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel-simile

~~The car was suffering and was in need of some TLC.-personification

"The Iron Lady"-antonomasia

~~The snow swaddled the earth like a mother would her infant child.-personification

Red letter day - an important day. In calendars, important days and holidays are marked in red-metonomy

~~Our lives on earth are short lived. Yet our after-life is forever. Isn\'t life just great....

Watching the show was like watching grass grow.-simile

~~To Homer - John Keats-assonance

"When it pours, it reigns."-pun

~~"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight"-juxtaposition

Don't bam on that table again-onomotapia

~~"American Home has an edifice complex."-pun

"Look deep into our ryes."

~~.The birds were fluttering their wings.-onomotapia

In an age of pressurized happiness, we sometimes grow insensitive to subtle joys.-epithet

~~The fire crackled as it kept us warm from the fireplace.-onomotapia

"Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted."-pun

~~Pretty ugly-oxymoron

Non-working mother

~~"Success hasn’t changed Frank Sinatra. When he was unappreciated and obscure, he was hot-tempered, egotistical, extravagant, and moody. Now that he is rich and famous, he is still hot-tempered, egotistical, extravagant, and moody."-epiphora

That is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.-simile

~~They fought like cats and dogs.-simile

The girl named angel goes to hell

~~Darkness shouted from a distance.-personification

'He writes with a fine hand'-metonomy

~~The waffle jumped up out of the toaster.-personification

Park drive

~~You were as brave as a lion.-simile

A Dialog between Old England and New - Anne Bradstreet

~~This happy breed of men, this little world-anaphora

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England-anaphora