A polysyndeton is a rhetorical machine through which conjunctions are repeated between phrases in a sentence.
Even when that is the primary time you’ve learn the phrase polysyndeton, you’ve most certainly learn or heard well-known examples of writers repeating conjunctions. We’ll dive deeper into what polysyndeton is, why writers use it, the distinction between polysyndeton, asyndeton, and syndeton, and examples of polysyndeton in literature.
What’s polysyndeton?
Polysyndeton is using repeated conjunctions between phrases or clauses in a sentence to emphasise what’s being stated. The phrase polysyndeton, pronounced poly-syn-de-ton, comes from the Historical Greek phrase polysyndetos, which implies “certain collectively.”
Writers use polysyndeton to emphasise phrases or phrases; for instance, take this well-known polysyndeton:
“Neither snow nor rain nor warmth nor gloom of evening stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
—US Postal Service motto
The repetition of the conjunction nor forces the speaker or reader to gradual their rhythm and emphasizes the climate parts postal carriers endure whereas on the job.
Let’s learn it with out the repeated conjunctions:
“Neither snow, rain, warmth, nor gloom of evening stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
The unique sentence is extra emphatic than the second instance, whose quicker rhythm offers you much less time to soak up the severity of the situations. Its polysyndeton is likely one of the the explanation why folks bear in mind the phrase greater than 100 years after it was inscribed on the facade of a New York postal workplace.
As a result of it provides emphasis, polysyndeton must be used sparingly in your writing. The machine might lose its impact if overused.
Different polysyndeton makes use of
Polysyndeton can be used to convey emotions of nervousness or anxiousness by overloading the reader with brief bits of knowledge. Right here’s an instance from “After the Storm,” a brief story by Ernest Hemingway.
“I stated, ‘Who killed him?’ and he stated ‘I don’t know who killed him, however he’s useless all proper,’ and it was darkish and there was water standing on the street and no lights or home windows broke and boats all up within the city and timber blown down and every thing all blown and I acquired a skiff and went out and located my boat the place I had her inside Mango Key and he or she was proper solely she was filled with water.”
The short bursts of and permit Hemingway to convey the chaos the characters are experiencing.
You too can use polysyndeton to create a extra childlike voice. Consider your two-year-old cousin who talks like this:
“After which we went to the park, after which we acquired ice cream, after which we ate the ice cream, after which . . .”
Polysyndeton vs. asyndeton vs. syndeton
Polysyndeton isn’t the one literary machine that bends the writing guidelines in relation to conjunctions.
An asyndeton omits conjunctions to alter a sentence’s tone by rushing up a speaker’s or author’s phrases. Like polysyndeton, asyndeton could also be used to emphasise what’s being stated.
Instance: “Consciousness of place got here ebbing again to him slowly over an enormous tract of time unlit, unfelt, unlived.”
—James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Younger Man
Asyndeton is greatest deployed to emphasise a sentence; use polysyndeton to emphasise the person phrases or phrases related by the conjunctions.
A syndeton is a phrase certain collectively by a conjunction, and the impact is to make a sentence or phrase direct and clear.
Instance: “I don’t like inexperienced eggs and ham.”
—Dr. Seuss, Inexperienced Eggs and Ham
A sentence may be written as a polysyndeton, an asyndeton, or a syndeton relying on the author’s intention. We’ll write the identical sentence three alternative ways to see the way it adjustments the tone and rhythm.
Scale back, reuse, and recycle.
This can be a syndeton, and it’s very direct and reads like an inventory or set of instructions.
Scale back, reuse, recycle.
That is an asyndeton, and its conciseness makes it simpler for folks to recollect.
Scale back, and reuse, and recycle.
This can be a polysyndeton, and the slower rhythm emphasizes the significance of every phrase.
Whereas every sentence is grammatically right, the tone adjustments relying on whether or not it’s written as a syndeton, an asyndeton, or a polysyndeton.
5 examples of polysyndeton in literature
“Let the whitefolks have their cash and energy and segregation and sarcasm and large homes and colleges and lawns like carpets, and books, and principally—principally—allow them to have their whiteness.”
—Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Chook Sings
“If there be cords, or knives, or poison, or hearth, or suffocating streams, I’ll not endure it.”
—William Shakespeare, Othello
“And God stated, Let the earth carry forth the residing creature after his type, cattle, and creeping factor, and beast of the earth after his type: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his type, and cattle after their type, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his type: and God noticed that it was good.”
—Genesis 1:24–25 (AV)
“There have been frowzy fields, and cow-houses, and dunghills, and dustheaps, and ditches, and gardens, and summer-houses, and carpet-beating grounds, on the very door of the Railway. Little tumuli of oyster shells within the oyster season, and of lobster shells within the lobster season, and of damaged crockery and light cabbage leaves in all seasons, encroached upon its excessive locations.”
—Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son
“Oh, my piglets, we’re the origins of conflict—not historical past’s forces, nor the instances, nor justice, nor the dearth of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor concepts, nor varieties of presidency—not another factor. We’re the killers.”
—The Lion in Winter (movie)
Polysyndeton FAQs
What’s polysyndeton?
A polysyndeton is the repeated use of conjunctions to emphasise a set of phrases, phrases, or sentences.
How does polysyndeton work?
A polysyndeton works by forcing the reader or speaker to gradual their rhythm, which supplies equal emphasis to the phrases or phrases linked by the repeated conjunctions.
How does polysyndeton differ from asyndeton?
A polysyndeton repeats conjunctions, whereas an asyndeton omits conjunctions altogether.
