For the last post of this series about improving writing
style by a deeper understanding of syntax, I stray from all those good things
we learned in school about style to look at the power of repetition through
four famous examples in chronological order.
A Tale of
Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
This 1859 novel starts with a 119-word paragraph with six unadorned monosyllabic
words, “It was the best of times” followed by nine other six-word independent clauses
repeating it was the, followed by a unique adjective, followed by the
repetitive of to begin 10 shortest possible 2-word prepositional phrases.
Let’s do the math here: 10 uses each of it, was, the and of,
not to mention the double use of age, epoch, and season. Thus,
45 of 60 words (66.7%) are repeats! Then following this remarkable linguistic recycling
are the double uses of we had and we were all going. The repetition
is downright dizzying and, more importantly, memorable.
Notes from Underground
by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first sentence of this 1864 novella sucks you
right in: “I am a sick man.” More striking is the Dostoevsky narrator’s repetitious
use of I—19 times in the first paragraph of 176 words. Adding to the I’s
his self-obsessed use of me once, my four times, and it twice
to indicate his liver and imagined disease, the 26 self-references total 14.8%
of the word count. By the end of this paragraph, we have no doubt who the story
will be about and how precarious his emotional state is.
“We Shall Fight on
the Beaches” by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill
delivered this 3,737-word speech to the British House of Commons on June 4,
1940 conceding a major military loss at Dunkirk after his famous blood, toil,
tears and sweat speech three weeks earlier and before his arguably more
famous This was their finest hour speech two weeks later. He says we
shall far more times than the one that immortalized his speech—10 in total within
a 73-word span (20 words, or 27.4%). What make the repetition more vivid are
the eight instances of we shall fight in the middle sandwiched by We
shall go on to the end in the beginning and We shall never surrender
at the end. (Do not tell me Churchill did not read A Tale of Two Cities!)
Powerful rhetoric!
“I Have a
Dream” by Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his monumental speech of
August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, to
an audience of 250,000, King says I have a dream 9 times within the
space of 229 words (36 words, or 15.7%). He then follows these words with let
freedom ring 10 times in a more concentrated 101 words (30 words, or 29.7%).
And for a topping, he closes by quoting for the black spiritual free at last
in the final 9 of 14 words (64.2%), the only other 5 words being the
awe-inspiring thank God almighty I am. Often touted as the greatest
speech of American political history, the 1,667-word masterpiece is graced with
powerful repetition in other places as well.
Repetition used wisely will impress an idea in the
imagination and move along the rhythm of the writer’s intended mood. I almost
want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this post.
***
Read
previous posts in this series:
Part 17: Using Active Voice for Clarity, Conciseness,
Fluency
Part 18: Using Passive Voice for Value, Context, Tact
Part 19: Valuing VarietyPart 18: Using Passive Voice for Value, Context, Tact
