Address & Argument
Enargeia / Vivid Specificity
Description so concrete and sensory that the audience seems to see it rather than read it. The precision does persuasive work: specific detail vouches for the whole account.
Homer lingering on the boar's-tusk helmet, strap by strap.
Don't confuse it with. Ekphrasis is enargeia aimed at an artwork; imagery is the broad modern term without the persuasive charge.
In the Reader — 4 excerpts
The daughters of Black Hawk merchants had a confident, unenquiring belief that they were "refined," and that the country girls, who "worked out," were not.
Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino.
tacked a note on the door of his little yellow house: At 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday the 18th of February, 1931, I will take off from Mercy and fly away on my own wings. Please forgive
The supermarket shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day, without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles, dismay in the faces of older shoppers.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with enargeia / vivid specificity most often — company reveals character.
The rest of the family
Rhetorical Question Apostrophe Invocation Aphorism Enthymeme Correctio / Epanorthosis Parrhesia Metabasis Amplificatio Aporia