The Elements of Eloquence

A poet is not somebody who has great thoughts. That is the menial duty of the philosopher. A poet is somebody who expresses his thoughts, however commonplace they may be, exquisitely. That is the one and only difference between the poet and everybody else.

For though one antithesis is grand, a long list of antitheses is divine, and is technically known as a progressio.

Merism is when you don’t say what you’re talking about, and instead name all of its parts.

Mr. Jaggers never laughed; but he wore great bright creaking boots; and, in poising himself on these boots, with his large head bent down and his eyebrows joined together, awaiting an answer he sometimes caused the boots to creak, as if they laughed in a dry and suspicious way.