Author:
Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation:
5 August 2021
Update Date:
10 May 2024
Content
The asyndeton It is a literary figure that implies the omission of conjunctions or links between the elements of a sentence. For example:
Pass out, dare, be furious
rough, tender, liberal, elusive,
encouraged, deadly, deceased, alive,
loyal, traitorous, cowardly and spirited.
(Lope de Vega)
This stylistic device seeks to speed up the rhythm of sentences through voluntary omission and generates a dramatic effect that gives greater expressive force and fluidity to what is said.
Deleted links and conjunctions are replaced by a comma to cause a pause between words.
The asyndeton is opposed to the polysyndeton, that literary figure that appeals to the use of unnecessary links and conjunctions for aesthetic purposes.
- See also: Rhetorical figures
Examples of sentences with asyndeton
- We had everything, little, nothing.
- I saw her, I smiled, I was silent, I ran away.
- The hours, the days, the months, the years go by.
- I arrived, arrived; I looked, looked; I smiled, smiled.
- Boys run, play, fight.
- Sing, laugh, dream, come with me, calm my pain. (Pedro Del Castillo)
- The sky, starry, illuminated, but desolate.
- Beautiful, naive, cheerful, but distant.
- I get closer, you move away; I look at you, you ignore me.
- The government of the people, by the people, for the people. (Abraham Lincoln)
- I love you from here to the sun, to infinity, always.
- Love, love until you die.
- On the ground, in smoke, in dust, in shadow, in nothing. (Luis de Góngora)
- I breathe, I live, I walk, I die slowly.
- Our leader, brave, strong, but also smart.
- You go, I come; you forget, I remember.
- Their faces lit up, sweaty, hopeful.
- His presence is peace, silence, tranquility; its absence, the emptiness.
- I laugh, he laughs; I love, he nothing.
- Come, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. (Julius Caesar)
- I loved, I cried, I forgot.
- Children cry, laugh, sleep, dream.
- Run, run, forget.
- His absence hurts, it reveals.
- Work, move, shake to eat! Hit that bomb, sweat, strive to catch the air you have to breathe! […] How chaste, how mysterious, how full of sweet modesty is the laziness of man always! (Gustavo Adolfo Becquer)
- Continue with: Polysyndeton
