Circumlocution is a rhetorical tool that can be described as an ambiguous or paradoxical manner of expressing things, ideas, or views. In fact, while somebody wants to remain ambiguous about some thing, and he does not want to mention a factor directly, it way he is using circumlocution.
Examining all of the examples of circumlocution, one would find that they share the following features:
It is used when the speaker is unable to select the proper phrases to specific or say something.
It is used for social functions so as to keep away from the use of offensive phrases.
It is used in politics and law, and from time to time it will become hard to judge which attitude of a flesh presser or a lawyer ought to be supported.
In poetry and verse, it's far used to create a normal meter.
Examples of Circumlocution in Literature
Example #1: Hamlet (By William Shakespeare)
“Then weigh what loss your honour may additionally sustain
If with too credent ear you listing his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmast’pink importunity.”
Laertes gives his domineering suggestion really here, but his tone appeared to be of a organized speech. He neither shows actual recognition of, nor attention for, Ophelia’s feelings. By the usage of circumlocution, he underscores her female inferiority.
Example #2: The Rape of the Lock (By Alexander Pope)
“Close by the ones meads, forever crowned with flowers,
Where Thames with pleasure surveys his growing towers,
There stands a shape of majestic frame,
Which for the neighb’ring Hampton takes its name.
Here Britain’s statesmen oft the autumn foredoom
Dost now and again recommend take—and every so often tea.
Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast,
When husbands or while lap-dogs breathe their last,
Or when wealthy China vessels, fall’n from high,
In glitt’ring dirt and painted fragments lie!”
In the previous excerpt, Pope criticizes the aristocracy by way of describing Hampton Court Palace. Circumlocution is employed to expose the tough realities, aside from the entertainment of court. Pope factors out both critical topics and trivial occasions occurring in royal houses.
Example #3: Kubla Khan (By S. T. Coleridge)
“So twice 5 miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there had been gardens vivid with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here have been forests historic because the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.”
Here, Coleridge uses circumlocution to illustrate the underlying concepts. He describes the outside herbal world, that's wild, and the things that are covered and non violent in the palace walls.
Example #4: Heart of Darkness (By Joseph Conrad)
“The fringe of a large jungle, so darkish green as to be nearly black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a dominated line, some distance, some distance away alongside a blue sea whose glitter turned into blurred via a creeping mist. The sun turned into fierce, the land appeared to glisten and drip with steam…”
Conrad is intentionally offering ambiguous descriptions of the nature of morality and truth, which forces readers to participate in comprehending the novella. Here, the depiction of nature – of forests, and sea, of sun and mist – represents racial, political, psychoanalytical, and feminist perspectives.
Example #5: The Importance of Being Earnest (By Oscar Wilde)
“I became inside a hair’s breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I discovered with humiliation that likely I might have nothing to mention…”
In this excerpt, the concept of earnestness has regarded in various forms. It can be understood with the aid of its opposites. Here, it's miles provided as the opposite of triviality, and somewhere else as the alternative of seriousness. Though ostensibly it is a nice of candor, the exact meanings are still vague.
Example #6: Holy Sonnet 14 (By John Donne)
“Divorce me, untie or wreck that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, by no means will be free,
Nor ever chaste, besides you ravish me.”
Donne talks approximately the struggle that rages within himself, which he expresses via circumlocution. He says a man can not keep away from Satan’s influence, but he need to rely on God to get freedom spiritually from Satan.
Function of Circumlocution
Circumlocution is notably utilized in poetry, music, and rhetorical speech. It is, in fact, the embellishment of putting exceptional phrases collectively so as not to say what someone wants not to say. Circumlocution makes the verses smooth and beautiful, since it is a way to set apart harsh speech, and make phrases sound sweeter. However, the primary use of circumlocution is to explicit some thing ambiguously, and often in poetry to create ordinary rhyme. Also, it is employed to present extraordinary thoughts to readers.
Popular Literary Devices
- Ad Hominem
- Deus Ex Machina
- Double Entendre
- Flash Forward
- Half Rhyme
- Internal Rhyme
- Line Break
- Non Sequitur
- Pathetic Fallacy
- Poetic Justice
- Point of View
- Red Herring
- Tragic Flaw