Figure Name | systrophe |
Source | Silva Rhetoricae (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm); Peacham 1593 |
Earliest Source | None |
Synonyms | conglobatio, convolutio |
Etymology | Gk. syn, "together" and strophe, "turning" |
Type | Trope |
Linguistic Domain |
Semantic |
Definition |
1. The listing of many qualities or descriptions of someone or something, without providing an explicit definition. (Silva Rhetoricae) 2. Systrophe of some called Conglobatio, of other convolutio, and it is when the Orator bringeth in many definitions of one thing, yet not such definitions as do declare the substance of a thing by the general kind, and the difference, which the art of reasoning doth prescribe, but others of another kind all heaped together. (Peacham) |
Example |
1. What [a] piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? 2. Another: Man is the example of imbecillitie, the image of unconstancie, the spoile of time, the bondman of miserie, the vessell of insatiable desire, and the confident castell of sudden ruine. (Peacham) |
Kind Of | Omission Identity Repetition Series |
Part Of | |
Related Figures | circumlocution |
Notes | |
Confidence | Unconfident |
Last Editor | Ashley Rose Kelly |
Confidence | Unconfident |
Editorial Notes | |
Reviewed | No |