Why authors use polysyndeton

Conjunctions a part of speech that is used to connect words, phrases, clauses, etc. Example: He screamed and laughed and cried and smiled with joy. In this sentence, I repeated the conjunction "and" several times. I could have said he screamed, laughed, cried, and smiled with joy. I chose to use a conjunction between each item in the series instead to make the sentence more dramatic. John gave a brilliant presentation on public speaking during the UN EMERGE programme in Geneva a two days workshop on leadership development for a group of female staff members working in the UN organizations in Geneva.

His talk was inspirational and practical, thanks to the many techniques and tips he shared with the audience. His teaching can dramatically change our public speaking performance and enable us as presenters to have a real and powerful impact.

Thank you, John, for your great contribution! John is a genuine communication innovator. His seminars on gamification of public speaking learning and his interactive Rhetoric game at our conference set the tone for change and improvement in our organisation. The quality of his input, the impact he made with his audience and his effortlessly engaging style made it easy to get on board with his core messages and won over some delegates who were extremely skeptical as to the efficacy of games for learning.

I simply cannot recommend him highly enough. The session surprised everybody and was a fresh-air activity that brought a lot of self-reflection and insights to improve trust and confidence in each other inside our team. Thank you very much for the excellent presentation skills session. The feedback I received was very positive. Everyone enjoyed the good mix of listening to your speech, co-developing a concrete take-away and the personal learning experience.

We all feel more devoted to the task ahead, more able to succeed and an elevated team spirit. Delivering this in a short time, both in session and in preparation, is outstanding! Charles Dickens is also well-known for his use of polysyndeton, as well as commas — often using both of these devices. You can see the effects in this passage taken from Dombey and Son.

Polysyndeton performs several functions. Not only does it join words, phrases, and clauses, bringing continuity to a sentence, but it acts also as a stylistic device that brings rhythm to the text with the repetition of conjunctions in quick succession. And I do not see that it brings into the islands meat or bread or beer or wine or timber or cabbages or books or instruments of music or horses or armour or anything else worth having.

While literature is famous for its use of polysyndeton, songwriters like it too. Because it adds a nice rhythm to the song lyrics. It also adds power to the melody! It also works to slow down the rhythm of the song to help support this feeling. In his protest song Masters of War , Bob Dylan makes you feel his rage and revulsion in his lyrics.

See both sides of this coin in movies and TV polysyndeton examples. Looking to add a little humor to life? Check out how polysyndeton is used by Professor Fink in the Simpsons to add comedic relief. There was trouble at the lab with the running and the exploding and the crying when the monkeys stole the glasses off my head.

It shows how humans are truly the origins of war. We are the killers. While they look similar, each of these terms has a specific purpose in writing, and all use conjunctions in some way.