Litotes
Litotes is a figure of understatement in which an affirmative or a stronger claim is expressed by negating its opposite. Naming what someone is not ('never a saint', 'no small thing', 'not bad') implies a qualified version of the positive or negative extreme without stating it outright.
Litotes softens a claim into something that reads as measured or restrained rather than direct, while still landing the underlying judgement. It lets a speaker name a flaw, a scale, or a quality by declining to claim its opposite outright, which can carry an air of tact, irony, or realism depending on context.
Appears in 1 song
“So you were never a saint”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as litotes: by saying the beloved was 'never a saint', the speaker is effectively saying he is flawed or imperfect, but through understatement rather than direct accusation. Uncle Jerry connects this to the Ciceronian rhetorical tradition, where a speaker says 'I don't need to tell you what an evil man he is' and thereby tells you exactly that.
The litotes introduces realism into the song's portrayal of love. Perfection is not required; love works despite imperfection, and naming the imperfection through understatement makes it feel like acceptance rather than complaint.