Of the Making of Periodic Sentences
Or, how to master grammar and write for suspense
I thought I’d try something different today. A delightful little exchange over the value of Victorian prose resulted in my going back to find some favorite — or at least illustrative — periodic sentences, of which I am a long time collector.
Consider the following analyses a little exercise in mastering English grammar. Too many elementary courses neglect the syntactical level of the clause and the compound, so that modern students never learn how to write with sufficient flexibility, much less correctness or rhetorical suspense.
Let’s consider a few periodic sentences to see how they work.
The Declaration of Independence
To start with something familiar, here’s the opening line (minus the dedication) of the Declaration of Independence.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
How and why is this a “periodic” sentence? “Period” means something like the “full statement,” continuing on until the period, the punctuation mark providing the definitive full stop.
Every sentence has a main clause. It may also have subordinate clauses. Subordinate clauses are either adjectival — meaning they modify nouns, answering the questions: which one, what kind, how many; or adverbial — meaning they modify verbs, answering the questions: when, where, why, how.
There can also be compounding, which is the simple multiplication of elements using and, but, or, yet, or a semi-colon (i.e. conjunctions).
Words and phrases (for example prepositional phrases), as well as subordinate clauses, can also be simpler modifiers, again either adjectival or adverbial.
What’s the main clause of the first sentence of the Declaration?
A decent respect requires (x).
where (x) is the direct object of the transitive verb “requires.” In this case, it is a noun clause, that is, a group of words that is basically a sentence in its own right (it has a subject and a verb), but it stands in for a single subject or object (a noun). The noun clause (x) is:
(that) they should declare the causes
Everything else in this sentence is a modifier, either adjectival or adverbial. The first great opening is an extended adverbial clause answering the question: when?
When does a decent respect require declaring the causes?
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them…
When? When it becomes necessary.
The “for” acts as a special kind of conjunction connecting another subordinate clause. That clause has the subject: “one people” and a compound predicate, with the verbs in this case taking infinitive form: to dissolve, to assume. Both are transitive verbs requiring direct objects: bands, station, respectively.1
(When it becomes necessary for) one people to dissolve the bands and to assume the station
Everything else is at yet another level of modification. We have simple adverbs or adjectives, or prepositional phrases, or relative clauses. Relative clauses are fairly easy to spot because they always include a relative pronoun (who, which, that), which refers back to an earlier noun in the sentence.2
When (in the Course of human events) - prepositional phrases
(political) bands (which have connected them with another) - adjective, relative clause
to assume (among the powers of the earth) - prepositional phrases
(separate and equal) station (to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them) - adjectives, relative clause
More modifiers fill out the main clause.
(decent) respect (to the opinions of mankind) - adjective, prepositional phrases
requires that they should declare the causes (which impel them to the separation) - relative clause
One could, of course, break down the relative clauses further in their respective components. But you get the idea.
Now, how is the sentence periodic? How is it not a complete sentence until the very end? Or, we might ask, at what point exactly does the period strictly close?
The key is: the main clause has to be complete.
If there is a transitive verb, the direct object must be given. Adverbial and adjectival modifiers of whatever form (words, phrases, subordinate clauses) don’t count, because modifiers can always, in theory, be left out. The sentence would be bare, but it would still have its base meaning.
The period closes at:
A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes.
It’s not quite at the very end, because there is that last modifier telling which causes: the ones “that impel them to the separation.”
Again, the whole opening is one giant adverbial clause modifier answering the question when. This is a common way to construct periodic sentences. Stack up a vast series of compounded adverbial clauses before you eventually arrive at the subject-verb-object of the main statement you want to make.
Check out the further examples below, then try writing some periodic sentences of your own!
Sarsparilla
Let’s try another one. This is from E.B. White (author of The Elements of Style). Given that manual’s preference for brevity and clarity, it’s striking that such a sentence appears in Stuart Little.
In the loveliest town of all, where the houses were white and high and the elms trees were green and higher than the houses, where the front yards were wide and pleasant and the back yards were bushy and worth finding out about, where the streets sloped down to the stream and the stream flowed quietly under the bridge, where the lawns ended in orchards and the orchards ended in fields and the fields ended in pastures and the pastures climbed the hill and disappeared over the top toward the wonderful wide sky, in this loveliest of all towns Stuart stopped to get a drink of sarsaparilla.
Can you find the main clause? Where does the period end? How are the modifiers — adjectival and adverbial clauses and phrases — working? What about compounding?
Here’s a hint. There is a giant four-fold compound on “where,” which is adverbial (it answers the question: where?). Compounds are easily found by parallelism.
The opening prepositional phrase “In the loveliest town of all” is a prepositional phrase with the prepositional object: town. It’s the town where (w), (x), (y), (z). After the four “where” clauses, White repeats: “in this loveliest of all towns” to draw the reader back. Then we have the main clause at the very end:
Stuart stopped to get a drink (of sarsparilla).
Two More
Now you can figure out these two.
Dylan Thomas, "A Child's Christmas in Wales"
Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed.
Samuel Johnson, "Preface to Shakespeare"
To bring a lover, a lady, and a rival into the fable; to entangle them in contradictory obligations, perplex them with oppositions of interest, and harass them with violence of desires inconsistent with each other; to make them meet in rapture and part in agony; to fill their mouths with hyperbolical joy and outrageous sorrow; to distress them as nothing human ever was distressed; to deliver them as nothing human ever was delivered, is the business of a modern dramatist.
Answers below.
(The White, Thomas, and Johnson examples are taken from ThoughtCo.)
Cicero
Besides the Victorian prose stylists, the ancient Latin writer Cicero (often known as “Tully”) was the grand master of the periodic sentence. Here’s a telling example from “TKR” on Stack Exchange’s Latin server, with more analysis at the link.
It’s taken from the Second Catilinarian.
Tandem aliquando, Quirites, L. Catilinam furentem audacia, scelus anhelantem, pestem patriae nefarie molientem, vobis atque huic urbi ferrum flammamque minitantem, ex urbe vel eiecimus, vel emisimus, vel ipsum egredientem verbis prosecuti sumus. Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit.
C. D. Yonge's translation:
At length, O Romans, we have dismissed from the city, or driven out, or, when he was departing of his own accord, we have pursued with words, Lucius Catiline, mad with audacity, breathing wickedness, impiously planning mischief to his country, threatening fire and sword to you and to this city. He is gone, he has departed, he has disappeared, he has rushed out.
The English translation has rearranged the word order, and the period is not as evident. The main clause with compound verb is:
We have dismissed or driven out or pursued (with words) Lucius Catiline.
The transitive verbs require the direct object. In the Latin, the direct object Lucius Catiline comes at the very beginning, as if to say “Lucius Catiline… (that rascal)… (we) have dismissed, driven out, pursued.”3 All the adjectival modifiers on Catiline, in participial form, apply directly back to him and are given immediately following, all at the beginning. The listener is given up front the full justification for why the action is taken.4
L. Catilinam furentem audacia (mad with audacity), scelus anhelantem (breathing wickedness), pestem patriae nefarie molientem (impiously planning mischief to his country), vobis atque huic urbi ferrum flammamque minitantem (threatening fire and sword to you and to this city)…
The completion of the main clause then comes at the very end, with the subject (“we”) and the compound verbs dismissed, driven out, pursued.
One other interesting note. In ancient Greek and Latin, pronouns are usually included in the verb, so that a separate subject is not necessary.5 For example, in the second sentence in the passage, in Latin we have “Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit” meaning: “He is gone, he has departed, he has disappeared, he has rushed out.” You probably know another famous example: “Veni, vidi, vici” is translated “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
Thus in Latin, the period is not complete until the very end:
Ex urbe vel eiecimus, vel emisimus, vel (ipsum egredientem) verbis prosecuti sumus.
Literally, Lucius Catiline (he it is that, him) “from the city (we) have dismissed, or driven out, or (when he was departing of his own accord), with words have (we) pursued.”
The Greatest Period Ever
Finally, here is one of the greatest periodic sentences I have ever seen. It’s from St John of Damascus, from the opening (ch. 1) of his tale of Barlaam and Ioasaph. This is an English translation of the original Greek.6
Two shorter sentences open.
THE country of the Indians, as it is called, is vast and populous, lying far beyond Egypt. On the side of Egypt it is washed by seas and navigable gulphs, but on the mainland it marcheth with the borders of Persia, a land formerly darkened with the gloom of idolatry, barbarous to the last degree, and wholly given up to unlawful practices.
But when ‘the only-begotten Son of God, which is in the bosom of the Father,’ being grieved to see his own handiwork in bondage unto sin, was moved with compassion for the same, and shewed himself amongst us without sin, and, without leaving his Father’s throne, dwelt for a season in the Virgin’s womb for our sakes, that we might dwell in heaven, and be re-claimed from the ancient fall, and freed from sin by receiving again the adoption of sons; when he had fulfilled every stage of his life in the flesh for our sake, and endured the death of the Cross, and marvellously united earth and heaven; when he had risen again from the dead, and had been received up into heaven, and was seated at the right hand of the majesty of the Father, whence, according to his promise, he sent down the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, unto his eyewitnesses and disciples, in the shape of fiery tongues, and despatched them unto all nations, for to give light to them that sat in the darkness of ignorance, and to baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—whereby it fell to the lot of some of the Apostles to travel to the far-off East and to some to journey to the West-ward, while others traversed the regions North and South, fulfilling their appointed tasks—then it was, I say, that one of the company of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, most holy Thomas, was sent out to the land of the Indians, to preach the Gospel of Salvation.
Answers:
Thomas: “It snowed and it snowed.” Years and years ago, when…, when…, when… (we sang and wallowed and chased), before…, before…, before…, when…, it snowed and it snowed.
Johnson: (x) is the business (of the modern dramatist). (x) is a compound subject built of six infinitive phrases: To (a); to (b); to (c); to (d); to (e); to (f) is the business. The semi-colons give it away.
Do you have a favorite sentence you’d like to share? How about posting a periodic sentence you wrote yourself! 😎
Actually, technically, another (perhaps better) way to parse the “for” would be to take the two infinitive phrases (infinitives can’t really be used as the predicate verbs in a declarative clause) as adjectival modifiers on “one people.” (Infinitives can stand in as nouns or act in either an adjectival or adverbial capacity.) The whole construction on the “for” would then be a phrase rather than a clause.
An example is built in to that explanation. “They always include a relative pronoun, which refers back to an earlier noun in the sentence.”
In English we rarely or never put the object before the subject-verb. In other languages, especially when a poetic or rhetorical effect is intended, it’s easily done. To get a sense of what it sounds like in English, you need look no farther than Yoda.
Cicero practiced judicial rhetoric, one of the three branches of classical oratory (the other two being deliberative and celebratory or epideictic). In other words, he was a lawyer, a prosecutor. At the sentencing, it was common to amplify the crime or the nefariousness of the criminal so as to arouse public sentiment against him. Rhetorical techniques of blame (paired with contrary techniques for praise) were well-honed. Though a very old website, Silva Rhetoricae is still one of the best for exploring the concepts and techniques of classical rhetoric.
Ancient Latin and Greek are highly inflected languages. This means the endings attached to verbs and other parts of speech carry most of the grammar. In English, by contrast, word order matters more. Verb forms thus include the subject if it’s a pronoun (implied by person and number), tense, and mood.
Ancient Greek is notorious for elaborate sentence structures. There is also the matter of a lack of punctuation (capitalization, even spaces between words!) used in the scriptio continua ancient manuscripts, so a reader would have to interpret the text at the most basic level just to figure out where sentences (and words) were stopping and starting.
Love a solid coverage on an important piece of grammar. I personally don’t prefer periodic sentences in writing. I like shorter, more direct sentences with just the basic SOV agreement with some prepositional phrases thrown in for clarity. But overall, periodic sentences are great to be familiar with especially if you want to read older stuff. Thanks for the read, Tracy!
Let me just say how much I love this.