Cover not available
Part of
Operationalizing Iconicity
Edited by Pamela Perniss, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 17] 2020
► pp. 125–136

On the expressive and iconic value of enjambment from Homer to Milton

| University of Salerno

Enjambment, the breaking of correspondence between meter and syntax usually employed to avoid the monotony of verse-phrase, is also, in some cases, exploited as an effective stylistic figure to charge the diction with expressiveness at various levels. The aim of my paper is to discuss the iconic expressiveness of enjambment in epic poetry from Homer up to Milton and Tasso. I will analyse in particular the striking type consisting of the postposition of a single word in the next line, before a syntactic pause. This figure, since it introduces a strong pause in reading, seems particularly appropriate to stress significant words or to reinforce iconically the semantics of verbs meaning a sudden, violent action, such as that of falling down or throwing. The ‘chain’ of passages in which the figure is employed with similar stylistic effects in different literatures and languages sheds an important light on the ‘mechanisms’ of intertextuality, clarifying the impact and the contribution of great Poets to the stylistic repertoire of an entire poetic genre.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Homeric enjambment
  • 3.Virgilian enjambment
  • 4.Dante’s iconic enjambment
  • 5.Enjambment in Tasso’s and Ariosto’s poetry
  • 6.Miltonic enjambment
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.17.07dai
References
von Albrecht, M.
2006  Vergil: Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis: Eine Einführung . Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Austin, R. G.
1964 Aeneidos P. Vergilii Maronis liber quartus. Edited with a Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conte, G. B.
2007 The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Virgilian Epic. Edited by S. J. Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Dell’imitazione, furto e originalità. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale.Google Scholar
Dainotti, P.
2015 Word Order and Expressiveness in the Aeneid. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. . DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eden, T. P.
1975 A Commentary on Virgil: VIII. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fubini, M.
1971 2. “Osservazioni sul lessico e sulla metrica del Tasso”. In M. Fubini, Studi sulla letteratura del Rinascimento, 216–247. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.Google Scholar
Grammont, M.
1913 2. Le vers français, ses moyens d’expression, son harmonie. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Gransden, K. W.
2004 2. Virgil: the Aeneid. Second edition by S. J. Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hardie, P.
1998 Virgil [New Surveys in the Classics 28]. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Henry, J.
1878  Aeneidea, or Critical, Exegetical, and Aesthetical Remarks on the Aeneis. vol. II. Dublin: Dublin University Press.Google Scholar
Horsfall, N.
2005 Style, language and meter. In A Companion to the Study of Virgil, N. Horsfall (ed.), 217–248. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Jackson Knight, W. F.
1966 2. Roman Vergil. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Lateiner, D.
1990 Mimetic Syntax: Metaphor from Word Order, Especially in Ovid. The American Journal of Philology 111: 204–237. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marouzeau, J.
1946 2. Traité de stylistique latine. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Roiron, F.
1908 Étude sur l’imagination auditive de Virgile. Paris: Leroux.Google Scholar
Tarrant, R. J.
2012 Virgil: Aeneid, Book XII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, L. P.
1963 Golden Latin Artistry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wills, J.
1996 Repetition in Latin Poetry: Figures of Allusion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Tartakovsky, Roi & Yeshayahu Shen
2023. The Storm Sank My Boat and My Dreams: The Zeugma as a Breach of Iconicity. Metaphor and Symbol 38:2 ► pp. 162 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.