Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, and clauses are rearranged in a sentence, without altering the meaning, writes Roopa Banerjee
“A nice time we had, the ducks playing, watching, the duck pond.” This sentence made you pause, I know. What I meant to say was “We had a nice time at the lake watching the ducks play in the duck pond.” However what I said in the opening sentence, though, was more poetic and interesting. That is because it was a hyperbaton.
Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, and clauses are rearranged in a sentence, without altering the meaning. It is popularly known as the literary device of disorder.
It comes from the Greek hyperbaton (pronounced hy-pur-buh-ton) which means ‘transposition’ i.e, rearrangement of words.
Writers use hyperbaton to create emphasis and rhetorical effect. When words are arranged differently, readers are jolted into paying attention as it interrupts the natural flow of sentences. It is a unique literary form because it allows writers to bypass grammatical rules and expectations to create dramatic effect. When using hyperbaton a writer has full liberty to rearrange words in a sentence, moving all or most or even just one word.
Hyperbaton is commonly used in poetry, particularly in rhyming and metered poems. Disrupted sentences prompt readers to slow down and soak in the emotions and full meaning of a poem. An example is this verse from T. S. Eliot’s Wasteland:
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
Poets such as E.E. Cummings used hyperbaton to give an ambiguous feel to their fulminations:
Women and men (both little and small)
Cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain
children guessed (but only a few)
and down they forgot as up they grew …
The bard William Shakespeare has also used hyperbaton to great effect in many of his plays. For instance, these lines from Julius Caesar give emotional depth by playing with the position of words.
His coward lips did from their colour fly
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his lustre. I did hear him groan,
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books.
Films and television serials also use hyperbaton for effect and emphasis. Fans of Star Wars will agree that Yoda is perhaps the most prolific user of this literary device of disorder.
Always with you it cannot be done. You do nothing that I say. You must unlearn what you have learned. Try not! Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Yoda acquired cult status for his strange way of speaking, thanks to use of hyperbaton.
However sometimes hyperbatons cause confusion in listeners’ minds. This was highlighted hilariously in these lines from the American TV series Moonlighting (1985).
Maddie Hayes: Well, let me remind you Mr. Addison, that one case does not a detective make.
David Addison: Well, let me remind you Ms. Hayes, that I hate it when you talk backwards.
EXERCISE
Identify the following famous hyperbaton examples:
- “From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
As Lady from her Door
Emerged — a summer afternoon —
Repairing everywhere.”
- “One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day.”
- “And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made.”
Answers:
- Emily Dickinson, From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
- Aristotle
- W B. Yeats The Lake Isle of Innisfree
