Today I think I’ll use… Hyperbaton

It’s fun to use obscure literary and rhetorical terms that nobody knows for techniques that we use all the time.

All hyperbaton really is is messing with the typical order of words to create interesting rhetorical effects. Here’s a good example:

“When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not.”

Yoda — Return of the Jedi

Shakespeare goes to town with hyperbaton. In fact, it’s all over the place in poetry, where the demands of rhyme and rhythm make it a necessity to play with word order. Anytime you can surprise and delight a reader, you’re on all eight running.

It really works, doesn’t it? Pretty cool.

Go ahead and be a hyperbaton today!

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