Cover not available

In:Operationalizing Iconicity
Edited by Pamela Perniss, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 17] 2020
► pp. 125–136

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

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

 | University of Salerno
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.17.07dai
Abstract
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
References (19)
References
von Albrecht, M. 2006. Vergil: Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis: Eine Einführung. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, R. G. 1964. Aeneidos P. Vergilii Maronis liber quartus. Edited with a Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Conte, G. B. 2007. The Poetry of Pathos: Studies in Virgilian Epic. Edited by S. J. Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Dell’imitazione, furto e originalità. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dainotti, P. 2015. Word Order and Expressiveness in the Aeneid. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. . Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eden, T. P. 1975. A Commentary on Virgil: VIII. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Grammont, M. 1913 2. Le vers français, ses moyens d’expression, son harmonie. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gransden, K. W. 2004 2. Virgil: the Aeneid. Second edition by S. J. Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hardie, P. 1998. Virgil [New Surveys in the Classics 28]. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henry, J. 1878. Aeneidea, or Critical, Exegetical, and Aesthetical Remarks on the Aeneis. vol. II. Dublin: Dublin University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackson Knight, W. F. 1966 2. Roman Vergil. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lateiner, D. 1990. Mimetic Syntax: Metaphor from Word Order, Especially in Ovid. The American Journal of Philology 111: 204–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marouzeau, J. 1946 2. Traité de stylistique latine. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roiron, F. 1908. Étude sur l’imagination auditive de Virgile. Paris: Leroux.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tarrant, R. J. 2012. Virgil: Aeneid, Book XII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkinson, L. P. 1963. Golden Latin Artistry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wills, J. 1996. Repetition in Latin Poetry: Figures of Allusion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

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 12 december 2025. 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue