"Why Read the Classics?" #3

Common examples that are often used in writing are metaphors, similies, ironies, hyperbolies, onomatopoeias, and much more than that. As we have learned in earlier blogs, a rhetorical device is a technique of writing that an author uses to effect or persuade the reader. So in his essay, Calvino is trying to persuade his readers using different techniques. While reading "Why Read the Classics?", I noticed several rhetorical devices used. One that caught my eye was anaphora. Anaphora is repetition of a word at the beginning of consecutive sentences.

"4. A classic is a book with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.

5. A classic is a book which even when we read it for the first time gives the sense of reading something we have read before.

6. A classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to say to its readers. Whereas definition 5 suggests a more elaborate formulation, such as this:"

All three of these sentences have the same few words in the beginning: "A classic is a book..." So this is just one rhetorical device I found in Calvino's essay. There are many many more, so check out the essay for yourself.