“No need to rush; you need to hear what I’m saying~”

POLYSYNDETON

//A ranger who takes pride in the wide scope they can cover and, unlike their sibling Asyndeton, prefers taking their time to allow each topic due diligence. They believe that rushing can lead to overlooked information and wants to ensure their words and actions are properly absorbed.

// RANGER

//In a fight, they are far enough away to survey the entire area before slowly and methodically accounting for each opponent in turn.

“‘Patients who consult us because of their suffering and their distress and their disability,’ he continues, ‘have every right to resent being plastered with a damning index tab.’”

- Susan Sontag, Illness As Metaphor

The addition of “and” between each of these list items drags on the sentence, reflecting the lasting nature of illness, especially chronic ones. Furthermore, since each item is a bodily dread, each addition to the list when reading contributes to an overwhelming sense of powerlessness, also mirroring what a patient condemned with a deadly prognosis may feel like.

“They go in the air boxes and in those boxes are smaller boxes and smaller boxes and many of them crawl inside a box and sit there and share the air.”

-Charles Yu, Systems

The repeated “and’s draws out the situation of the sentence, reflecting how long lasting the quarantine was. Additionally, this is a fairly long list that doesn’t have any commas or breaks. Therefore, by the end of reading this sentence, especially verbally, there’s a sense of exhaustion or even shortness of breath, mimicking the sentence’s content of “shar[ing] the air” in a “small box.”

“They lived and laughed and loved and left.”

- James Joyce

The inclusion of "and" between each of these slows down the reader while also slowing down the time frame covered in the quote. The span of life discussed was not rushed, but rather enjoyed in each individual part, and each term is given equal importance and adequate time. Additionally, the alliteration of each of the terms create a fluid sense of rhythm and movement that creates a feeling of grace toward the type

of attitude in life depicted in this quote.

“If there be cords, or knives, or poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, I'll not endure it.”

- William Shakespeare, Othello

This list is short, but due to the inclusion of so many "or"s, a sense of exhaustion builds when reading it. Furthermore, since the topic of each of the list items are grim and painful, imagining the scenario of this quote as it is read creates the same "suffocating" feeling Othello himself feels from his own doubts and fears.

REFLECTION

For Polysyndeton, I was focusing on a direct comparison between them and Asyndeton. They both cover a large range but since Polysyndeton takes longer, I thought the role of a surveying, long range fighter who could calmly assess and target at their own pace might fit the personification of this term. Additionally, rangers have a reputation for agility, and I thought in contrast to Asyndeton, Polysyndeton was more fluid as opposed to choppy, and could exhibit the same grace typically attributed to this class.

Initially, for no other reason other than I also enjoy drawing humanoid hybrid creatures, I was going to make them a harpy, which might also pair with Asyndeton's distinct non-human-ness, but when I realized they would be shooting a bow, wings for arms made a bit less sense...