Monday, April 14, 2008
Two Rhetorical Devices
I've recently noticed some examples of interlocking chiasmus and asyndetic, privative adjectives, and I want to add them to the electronic filing cabinet that is my blog.
Examples of interlocking chiasmus:
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Examples of interlocking chiasmus:
- Homer, Iliad 8.64-65 (tr. A.T. Murray): Then were heard alike the sound of groaning and the cry of triumph of the slayers and the slain, and the earth flowed with blood. (ἔνθα δ' ἅμ' οἰμωγή τε καὶ εὐχωλὴ πέλεν ἀνδρῶν / ὀλλύντων τε καὶ ὀλλυμένων, ῥέε δ' αἵματι γαῖα.)
- Theognis 527-528 (adapted from J.R. Edmonds' translation): Alas for Youth and alas for baleful Age! the one [Age] that it cometh and the other [Youth] that it goeth. (Ὤ μοι ἐγὼν ἥβης καὶ γήραος οὐλομένοιο, / τοῦ μὲν ἐπερχομένου, τῆς δ' ἀπονισομένης.)
- Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, line 258: Unenvied, unmolested, unconfined
- William Cowper, Olney Hymns 37 (Afflictions Sanctified by the World, line 9): Unafflicted, undismayed
- William Wordsworth, The Prelude VI.442: Unchastened, unsubdued, unawed, unraised
- Matthew Arnold, Fragment of Chorus of a Dejaneira, line 28: Unworn, undebased, undecay'd
