While there are endless literary techniques that writers can use to spice up their writing, polysyndeton is one that you mayor may not have heard of.
Whether you know it by its name or not, you have certainly come across it in your reading. Maybe you didn’t notice it while you were reading, but once you understand what is is and how it works, you will begin to see it in more places as you continue to read books.
You might even find that you use it in your day-to-day life. One example might be when you’re describing your day ahead to your spouse, “First I need to go to the post office and then the grocery store and deposit my check while I’m out and then finally pick up the kids from school.”
Now, it may or may not be a tool you end up using as a writer, but the more tools you have at your disposal, the better.
In this article, we’ll be going over what polysyndeton is, how to use it, why you should as a writer, and then taking a look at some classic examples throughout literature so you can see how writers use it in their books.
What is Polysyndeton
Let’s take a look at the definition of polysyndeton:
“Polysyndeton is the deliberate insertion of conjunctions into a sentence for the purpose of “slow[ing] up the rhythm of the prose” so as to produce “an impressively solemn note.”
In grammar, a polysyndetic coordination is a coordination in which all conjuncts are linked by coordinating conjunctions (usually and, but, or, nor in English).”
Even as you’re reading, you might not catch the use of polysyndeton, but if you start to read sentences out loud you certainly will notice them.
Polysyndeton is a literary technique used to give weight to each action in a sentence. It also provides a little bit of a rhythm to each sentence as you read and can chop up sentences in a unique way.
The word polysyndeton comes from the Ancient Greeks which essentially means “many bound together with”. You can imagine that means that there are many ideas, thoughts, and actions all strung together in a sentence.
You’ll see in some examples below how authors have used this technique, but let’s dive into what you need to know before we move on.
How to Use Polysyndeton
If you want to use polysyndeton, know that they’re intentional repetition of conjunctions close to each other to create an effect when reading.
If you want the reader to slow down for a particular part or make sure they’re focusing on each of the actions a character is doing, that’s a good reason to use the polysyndeton technique.
In school, most of us were taught that run on sentences are “bad” writing, but that is not always the case. Famous authors from Ernest Hemingway to Cormac McCarthy used these techniques in their writing.
While it’s not the same thing as a run on sentence, just know it can take a while to mentally undo what you were taught in school and start to use advanced literary techniques in your writing.
If you’re not using it to have more of an effect in your writing, then it is a run on sentence instead of polysyndeton.
What Writers Need to Know About Polysyndeton
For the most part, using polysyndeton is a stylistic choice that will be decided by each individual writer and author.
Some writers love the style and how it works as a literary technique, and some writers thinks it makes sentences far too long and drawn out.
It should be something you experiment with to see if it enhances your writing and style or if it is something you don’t want to use.
For example, if one paragraph or scene in your book doesn’t seem to have as much impact as you want it to have, try out this technique and see if it adds more of an impact to each individual action and thought.
Examples of Polysyndeton in Literature
Cormac McCarthy, most famous for his book, The Road, was a big user of polysyndeton in his writing. Let’s look at some of his examples:
Out on the road the pilgrims sank down and fell over and died and the bleak and shrouded earth went trundling past the sun and returned again as trackless and as unremarked as the path of any nameless sisterworld in the ancient dark beyond.
From his book, The Road
And another one:
The horse screamed and reared and the Apache struggled to keep his seat and drew his sword and found himself staring into the black lemniscate that was the paired bores of Glanton’s doublerifle. […] Dust stanched the wet and naked heads of the scalped who with the fringe of hair below their wounds and tonsured to the bone now lay like maimed and naked monks in the bloodslaked dust and everywhere the dying groaned and gibbered and the horses lay screaming. […] The judge wrote on and then he folded the ledger shut and laid it to one side and pressed his hands together and passed them down over his nose and mouth and placed them palm down on his knees. […] He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once.
From his other book, Blood Meridian
As you read through all of these examples, take the time to read them out loud and see how they read differently or create a rhythm in each of the sentences.
A shorter example by writer James Joyce:
“They lived and laughed and loved and left.”
From his novel, Finnegans Wake
As you read each part, it feels like each of them are separate thoughts and experiences. They are moments in time that feel longer when they’re put together like that instead of, “They lived, laughed, loved, and left.”
Ernest Hemingway also used this literary technique to give us perspective into how his character is feeling:
“I said, ‘Who killed him?’ and he said ‘I don’t know who killed him, but he’s dead all right,’ and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights or windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was right only she was full of water.”
From his book, After the Storm
Even poets have used polysyndeton in their work. While it’s a shorter example than the others above, it will give you a good idea of the possibilities for even shorter text.
And soon it lightly dipped, and rose, and sank,
And dipped again…
John Keats from his poem Endymion
As you can see, that’s a short and right to the point example of how you could use polysyndeton in your writing to make a line stand out or create a whole new rhythm.
What To Do Next
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