Some Major Figures of Speech in Lucretius

Abstract

Figures of Speech In Lucretius' De Rerua Natura form such a vital part that one can scarcely conceive his great poem without them. Deprived of these many, beautiful and artistically written figures, the poem would lose much of Its value and charm. At times the figures do not materially add to the beauty or meaning of the poem, in reality, they are the De Rerum Natura Itself. |The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the use of the major figures of speech by Lucretius, and in addition to elucidate his poetical ability and to show an appreciation of his literary tendencies by an aesthetic study. |The rhetorical figures of speech checked for this study are simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification, metonymy, hyperbole and litotes. The grammatical figures are apocope, compound adjectives and archaism. These were chosen out of the great variety found in the poem as best suited to illustrate the poetic and literary qualities of Lucretius. In several instances the same passage was found to contain more than one figure and consequently is listed more than once.