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"There stand, for you are spell-stopp'd" Shakespeare, The Tempest
The use of 'spell-stopp'd' in the above quotation is called a compound epithet. It is any Noun-Verb combination used as an adjective. A few examples will elucidate the device:
To compose a compound epithet, first have a noun in mind that it is to be applied to. Let us choose the pronoun 'I', for simplicity. We may consider a situation like being kidnapped, or of being murdered in the furtherance of theft. Then we could be creative and say that a thief stole us. Therefore, 'I am thief-stolen'.
The use of 'spell-stopp'd' in the above quotation is called a compound epithet. It is any Noun-Verb combination used as an adjective. A few examples will elucidate the device:
- "I am bride-habited, but maiden-hearted" Shakespeare
- "And what eerie night to hurl, O remains, against this heart-mangling scorn?" Stéphane Mallarmé
- "Cold-blooded, smooth-faced, placid miscreant!" Lord Byron
To compose a compound epithet, first have a noun in mind that it is to be applied to. Let us choose the pronoun 'I', for simplicity. We may consider a situation like being kidnapped, or of being murdered in the furtherance of theft. Then we could be creative and say that a thief stole us. Therefore, 'I am thief-stolen'.
Catazarch's watercolor for 'A Sudden Flight'
https://catazarch.deviantart.com/ has made a beautiful interpretation of my haiku 'A Sudden Flight.'
Visit her page and support her! :)
Daily Deviation #2 given on 11/6/16
I want to thank LiliWrites (https://www.deviantart.com/liliwrites) and doughboycafe (https://www.deviantart.com/doughboycafe) for suggesting and featuring A Sudden Flight. I owe a great deal to all my followers and everyone who has supported me this year.
This is my second Daily Deviation this year. The previous one was for Change in a Coffee Cup.
An Analysis of the Inexpressible
Whenever, I read a piece of literature, I always know if it is a poem or if it is prose. My intuition seems wiser than my capacity to reason in this respect, because it seems impossible to clearly define a difference between these two literary endeavors, at least none that can withstand serious philosophical scrutiny.
Admittedly most readers are content with identifying the obvious, superficial differences: poetry is sometimes rhymed, prose is not; poetry is often in stanzas, prose usually in paragraphs; and so forth. And some readers will go so far as to say that these differences may be no more than historical accidents, variations in style
Atomism vs Infinite Divisibility
Atomism, the theory that there exist elementary particles in which no further division into parts can be found, has been a persistent idea in the study of physics. Indeed, the very word atom, which means ‘indivisible,’ comes to us from the ancient Greeks. More than two thousand years ago, the philosopher Democritus argued that everything in nature was made of small, indestructible and indivisible units of matter. He called them ἄτομον, pronounced ‘atomon.’
A profound theory to be sure. Democritus is also credited for conceiving many other modern ideas, and I would argue that he is one of
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Useful info! Thanks for sharing!