A polysyndeton is a rhetorical system 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 definitely 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 the usage of repeated conjunctions between phrases or clauses in a sentence to emphasise what’s being mentioned. The phrase polysyndeton, pronounced poly-syn-de-ton, comes from the Historical Greek phrase polysyndetos, which suggests “sure 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 night time 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 components postal carriers endure whereas on the job.

Let’s learn it with out the repeated conjunctions:

“Neither snow, rain, warmth, nor gloom of night time stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

The unique sentence is extra emphatic than the second instance, whose sooner rhythm provides you much less time to soak up the severity of the circumstances. Its polysyndeton is likely one of the the explanation why individuals 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 ought to be used sparingly in your writing. The system 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 quick bits of data. Right here’s an instance from “After the Storm,” a brief story by Ernest Hemingway.

“I mentioned, ‘Who killed him?’ and he mentioned ‘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 bushes blown down and the whole lot all blown and I obtained a skiff and went out and located my boat the place I had her inside Mango Key and she or he was proper solely she was filled with water.”

The short bursts of and enable Hemingway to convey the chaos the characters are experiencing.

You can even 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 obtained ice cream, after which we ate the ice cream, after which . . .”

Polysyndeton vs. asyndeton vs. syndeton

Polysyndeton isn’t the one literary system that bends the writing guidelines in relation to conjunctions.

An asyndeton omits conjunctions to vary 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 mentioned.

Instance: “Consciousness of place got here ebbing again to him slowly over an unlimited 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 linked by the conjunctions.

A syndeton is a phrase sure 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 could 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 a listing or set of instructions.

Scale back, reuse, recycle.

That is an asyndeton, and its conciseness makes it simpler for individuals 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 appropriate, 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 mentioned, Let the earth carry forth the residing creature after his form, cattle, and creeping factor, and beast of the earth after his form: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his form, and cattle after their form, and the whole lot that creepeth upon the earth after his form: 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 pale 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 shortage of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor concepts, nor varieties of presidency—not every other 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 provides 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.