Posts tagged syntax
Posts tagged syntax
This poem came from a late-night study session and an early class with a window. I wish I was kidding when I say it got so bad I was drawing syntactic trees that looked like the trees outside.
The orange leaves no longer stand
as a fixed member of the tree,
no longer grasped by the green fist of spring,
their golden heads find movement.
I see phrases stacked atop phrases and branching,
the layers of barred tree bark still thickening.
And every leaf a fallen word—
an agent here,
a sister there.
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important.
(via floating-in-the-blue)
