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POETIC LICENCES. |
I03 |
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These so-called poetic licences may be conveniently grouped together and considered under three heads—Grammatical, Orthographical) and Metrical. |
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I.—GRAMMATICAL LICENCES.
These embrace deviations from ordinary forms of expression, or the strict grammatical structure of sentences. In prose most of them would be considered solecisms, but in verse they are allowable in order to meet the exigencies of rhythm, or to add variety and elegance to the composition.
(a). Ellipsis.
This is the omission of words which are necessary to complete the construction though not to convey the sense.
Cold, cold, my girl ?
" Othello:'
What! all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop ?
"Macbeth."
Is there for honest poverty,
That hangs his head, and a' that ?
Burns.
A form of ellipsis in which the consequence is suppressed to be supplied by the" hearer's mind is called Aposiopesisy e.g. :
If she sustain him and his hundred knights
When I have shown the unfitness----- : How now, Oswald ?
" King Lear." |
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