By: Catarina Delgado and Joshua Aguirre

A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word-- usually with an emphatic climax.

 From the Greek, "going around, circuit”  In a sentence, there are two locations that add emphasis to an idea: the beginning and the end.

"Hereupon, not thinking it strange, if whatsoever is human should befal me, knowing how Providence overcomes grief, and discountenances crosses; and that, as we should not despair in evils which may happen to us, we should not be too confident, nor lean much to those goods we enjoy; I began to turn over in my remembrance all that could afflict miserable mortality, and to forecast everything which could beget gloomy and sad apprehensions, and with a mask of horror show itself to human eyes; till in the end, as by unities and points mathematicians are brought to great numbers and huge greatness, after many fantastical glances of the woes of mankind, and those incumbrances which follow upon life, I was brought to think, and with amazement, on the last of human terrors, or (as one termed it) the last of all dreadful and terrible evils, Death." (William Drummond)

Creating suspense for the reader by postponing the main clause or by interrupting it, the periodic sentence, which forces the reader to concentrate, helps emphasize important ideas.

Adams Sherman Hill in The Foundation of Rhetoric (1897): To secure force in a sentence, it is necessary not only to choose the strongest words and to be as concise as is consistent with clearness, but also to arrange words, phrases, and clauses in the order which gives a commanding position to what is most important, and thus fixes the attention on the central idea

Inverted order of a Sentence – a sentence where the predicate (main verb) comes before the subject.

 Never will I do that again!  I will never do that again!  Rarely have I eaten better food.  I have rarely eaten better food.  Hardly ever does he come to class on time.  He hardly ever does come to class on time.

 Review  Identify periodic sentences in a reading passage  Identify inverted sentences in a reading passage  Identify the effects  Write one periodic and inverted sentence  Quiz over inverted and periodic sentences  Writing Prompt

 Periodic Sentence - A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax.  Inverted Sentence - a sentence where the predicate (main verb) comes before the subject.

Snowflakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, Even as the troubled heart doth make In the white countenance confession, The troubled sky reveals The grief it feels. This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field.

 What is the effect of the periodic sentence?

Create a periodic sentence

 How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs*, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody? O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch A watch-case or a common Ôlarum-bell? Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude imperious surge, And in the visitation of the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads ad hanging them With deaf'ning clamour in the slippery clouds, That with the hurly death itself awakes? Canst thou, O partial* sleep, give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude, And in the calmest and most stillest night, With all appliances and means to boot, Deny it to a King? Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Henry IV, Part II – Shakespeare

Why, is the inverted sentence, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," more than "the head that wears a crown is uneasy?

Create an inverted sentence at least 10 words long.

 To analyze the work of an author from an earlier time period, such as Shakespeare, one must be able to understand what the author is saying, especially when inverted sentence structure is used.  Translate these inverted sentences

1. Shakespeare: Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away. Measure for Measure Act (4.1.7) 2. Shakespeare: How like a fawning publican he looks. The Merchant of Venice (1.3.38) 3. Shakespeare: The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promised to return. Romeo and Juliet ( )

1. Translation: Stop singing and leave quickly 2. Translation: He looks like an overly flattering tavern keeper 3. Translation: I sent the nurse at nine o'clock; she promised to return in a half an hour.

 Periodic sentences add variety, substance, and emphasis on an author’s writing.  Analyze the effect of the period sentence in Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

 We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet like speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

 In the following soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, King Henry laments his inability to sleep. In a well- organized essay, briefly summarize the King's thoughts and analyze how periodic and inverted sentences help to convey his state of mind and emphasis his thoughts. This activity was adapted from Becky Brown, NC School of the Arts. Edited by Catarina Delgado

 King, Jr., Martin Luther. “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” MLK Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct  “Periodic Sentence.” Answers. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct  Wilson, Ellen. “The Language of Shakespeare.” Suite101. N.p., 4 Apr Web. 18 Oct < ‌ arti cle.cfm/ ‌ the_language_of_shakespeare