Polyptoton (pronounced po-lip-toe-ton) occurs when the root of a word is repeated with a different ending. For example, the root of bleed would be blood. Melville gives us a good instance of polyptoton in Moby-Dick (1851):
The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and — Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer.
This statement is spoken by Captain Ahab. He is resolute in his quest to destroy a white whale, which was responsible for him losing his leg. Polyptoton is working on two levels here.
“Prophecy” is the noun form of the verb “prophesy.” Captain Ahab's intention is to do to the whale what the whale did to him. By using the non-active form “prophecy” to describe the whale’s action, Captain Ahab seems to be taking power from the whale.
In fact, this is followed by “I lost this leg.” The subject of the sentence here is the captain, suggesting even during that tragic event he had some control and power.
In the last sentence, we see the same effect. “Dismember” is what the captain plans to do to the whale. Labeling the whale as his “dismemberer” indeed betrays that the whale did have victory over him.
However, he only labels the whale as such to nullify its power with the dismember-dismemberer polyptoton.
The effects of polyptoton
Polyptoton is a rhetorical device that is used to achieve several effects. They include:
1. Emphasis. This is the case with all repetition. The repetition in polyptoton forces the reader to focus on the words that are repeated. In the case of Captain Ahab, his disfigurement of losing a leg and the psychological toll it had on him is emphasized by the polyptoton created by “dismember” and “dismemberer.”
2. Contrast. Polyptoton helps to effectively contrast two things, especially if a slight change in the word and its root leads to a big change in meaning. Moving from being dismembered to doing the dismembering is a powerful contrast.
3. Change. Polyptoton can also register a change. For example, in the case of the Moby-Dick quote, we see the relationship between the whale and Captain Ahab change from that of Ahab being a victim, or the one dismembered to him being the one who intends to do the dismembering.
4. Connection. In the quote from Captain Ahab, we see what appears to be a deep and even cosmic relationship between the captain and the whale. The relationship between the two began with Captain Ahab hoping to be the conqueror and the whale the victim.
But it resulted in Captain Ahab being the victim and losing his leg. However, the captain remains resolute and still plans to dismember his dismemberer. You could say that the polyptoton in that short passage gives the whole history of the adversarial relationship and connection between Captain Ahab and the whale, Moby Dick.
More examples of polyptoton
The following is a quote by an English politician, Lord Action (1887), which most people have likely heard:
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
There is alot of repetition going on here. But the polyptotonic effect hinges on “absolute” and “absolutely.” The power of that quote lies in its brevity and the way it neatly encapsulates the point being made.
Mark Anthony’s speech over the dead body of Caesar also provides a notable example of polyptoton:
The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Antony here is slowly preparing the crowd to revolt against the murderers of his friend Caesar. He does so methodically. At first, with this passage, he seems to suggest that the death of Caesar was justified by balancing and contrasting the grievous fault of his ambition with the price that he had to grievously pay.
As we know, Anthony goes on to slowly reveal that Caesar’s murderers were wholly unjustified and that Caesar had been grievously wronged. He does so by continuously contrasting the good deeds of Caesar with his foul murder.
T.S Eliot wrote the “Dry Salvages” (1941) during World War II:
There is no end of it, the voiceless wailing,
No end to the withering of withered flowers,
To the movement of pain that is painless and motionless,
To the drift of the sea and the drifting wreckage,
The bone’s prayer to Death its God. Only the hardly, barely prayable
Prayer of the one Annunciation.
The poem is bemoaning the death, destruction, and despair of that era. And it uses polytoton to establish its bleak and depressive tone. Only in the end of the passage is there a faint “prayer” of hope described in the polyptoton of “the barely prayable Prayer of the One Annunciation.”
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, September 11). Polyptoton. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/polyptoton |
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