Poetic Figures 1 THE OMISSION OF CERTAIN WORDS Ellipsis : omission - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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)