Anastrophe – Literary terms

Anastrophe,Literary terms,lake isle of Innisfree and anastrophe

Anastrophe – Literary terms

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Anastrophe:

A rhetorical term for the inversion of the normal order of the parts of a sentence. Writers, especially poets, use anastrophe to place emphasis on a word or idea or to create or accommodate a certain RHYME, RHYTHM, or EUPHONY.

Notice what is lost when normal word order replaces the anastrophe in these lines of poetry:

After great pain a formal feeling comes

The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs.                                                                    

                                  -- Emily Dickinson

 

A formal feeling comes after great pain,

The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs.

 

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made.

                                                - - - -William Butler Yeats

 

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And build a small cabin there made of clay and wattles.