'The Wall Street Crash did not cause the Great Depression; the war did. Roosevelt's New Deal did not remedy the Great Depression; the war did.' --Robert Sobel, unknown source (either 'Panic on Wall Street' or 'The Great Bull Market').
Which rhetorical devices are at work in this sentence? I thought epistrophe but the word as defined on Onelook didn't capture the similarity of structure in the two non-identical clauses. Any ideas?
Welcome, orchard!
If you can find Willard Espy's "The Garden of Eloquence", that will probably have the right word in it. I have a copy, but putting my hand on it will take me a couple of days.
> similarity of structure in the two non-identical clauses.
Parallelism?
If you can't find The Garden of Eloquence under the bed (with the dust
balls, thank you very much), you can at
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Primary Texts/Peacham.htm. The New York Public Library catalogs one
that contains examples from Henry Peacham's original of 1577. I don't know but that this one
is "the original." Or isn't.
I'll go with Avy in voting for parallelism for the overall structure, with the addeed bonus of epistrophe in the repetition of the phrase 'the war did.'
I'll go with Faldage and Avy, except that I wonder why an epistrophe isn't just a species of parallelism (?).
"The subtle distinction between two terms [of rhetoric]
is completely irrelevant."
- anon. college classics department chairman
The subtle distinction between two terms [of rhetoric] is completely irrelevant.
The distinction might be irrelevant but methinks the *reason(ing) for using (having) two terms can't be.
Although an implied thrift comes with eloquence, does not specificity arrive as well?
<<The subtle distinction...>>
Thus, my question, why not just say 'epistrophe' and leave it at that.
why not just say 'epistrophe' and leave it at that
Sure. And why bother with distinguishing between, say, afterthought and forethought? Just call them both afterthought.
An 'epistrophic parallelism' it is then. I'm not aiming for eloquence or specificity. My writerly persona is more the vague smart aleck, with a dash of wilful obscurity.
PS Wow that Peacham link is comprehensiverama!
----
Evangelise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEO!
<<sure. ...>>
Perhaps I misunderstood tsuwm. Or perhaps you misunderstood me. Whatever. It's not worth the effort.
>Perhaps I misunderstood tsuwm.
I think near everyone here misunderstood the quote I posted (which was actually sent to me as something the head of some classics dept. actually said).
I'm pretty sure that the context of this was that the fine distinctions between some of these trope-types (that seem to cause mere mortals to forget which is which) hardly matter to anyone outside the halls of academia -- or maybe inside either.
<<I think everyone here misunderstood the quote...>>
Thanks, t. That answers my question. I was looking for a fine point, and I'm satisfied that if there is one, it doesn't really matter anyway.