Writing Devices - Rhetoric Syllepsis To use a kind of parallelism to make things seem tidy and neat - "Lust conquered shame; audacity, fear; madness, reason." - Cicero (layered with tricolon) To highlight the ridiculousness of the range of a single word - "A shocking affair occurred last night. Sir Edward Hopeless, as guest at Lady Panmore's ball, complained of feeling ill, took a highball, his hat, his coat, his departure, no notice of his friends, a taxi, a pistol from his pocket, and finally his life. Nice chap. Regrets and all that." - Anonymous - "She made no reply, up her mind, and a dash for the door." To contrast the concrete and the abstract, the literal with the figurative - "Rend your heart, and not your garments." - Joel 2:13 - "You may seek it with thimbles -- and seek it with care; You may hunt it with forks and hope; You may threaten its life with a railway-share; You may charm it with smiles and soap." - Lewis Carol - "Mr Pickwick took his hat and his leave." - Charles Dickens - "Maybe Pot Baron would name it it after his old beautiful Stoner Athlete friend who had taken a one-way trip to Hawaii to throw away his body and privilege away snapped his neck in a cliff-diving accident in Oahu." - John Hodgman - "and she feeds me love and tenderness and macaroons." - The Stampeders - "She had a bright and terrified light in her eyes." - John Hodgman - "Make love not war." - "They covered themselves in dust and glory." - Mark Twain To make the reader laugh by making someone look silly - "I've barely room enough to lay my hat and a few friends." - Dorothy Parker - "The trouble with Ian is that he gets off with women because he can't get on with them." - Rosamand Lehmann - "Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey, Dost sometimes Counsel take -- and sometimes Tea." - Alexander Pope - "On their flippant way through Italy, the French carelessly picked up Genoa, Naples and syphilis." - Voltaire (layered with tricolon)