Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Ellipsis : omission of words necessary in grammar • Asyndeton : omission of conjunctions • Aposiopesis : breaking off before the end of a sentence
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Ellipsis : omission of words necessary in grammar • “leaving out (words)” • most often, a form of “to be” – Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men (Luke 2:14) – Happy the people whose annals are boring to read (Montesquieu)
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Ellipsis : accelerates the speed of a passage – I your commission will forthwith dispatch And he to England shall along with you (Shakespeare, Hamlet 3.3.3) – Et tu, Brute (“You too, Brutus!”) (J. Caesar) – And the raven: “Only this and nothing more!” (E.A. Poe)
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Asyndeton : omission of conjunctions • “no con-junction(s)” – I came, I saw, I conquered (J. Caesar) – That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth (A. Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address ) – When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when I became a man . . . (St. Paul)
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Asyndeton : creates a rapid-fire list – For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:21)
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Asyndeton : creates a rapid-fire list – Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice (Spinoza) – I do not understand; I pause; I examine (Montaigne) – Hoo! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot think, speak, cast, write, sing, number — hoo! — his love to Antony (Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra 3.2.16)
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Aposiopesis : breaking off before the end of a sentence • “silencing off” – And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, ... (Genesis 3:22)
Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS • Aposiopesis : shows a sudden change of emotional state – Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. (Exodus 32:31) – For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion—Have you a daughter? (Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.181)
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