Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences

● Exercise 3 ●

Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern.

  1. It was June and everywhere June was publishing her immemorial stanza; in the lilacs, in the syringa, in the freshly edged paths and the sweetness of moist beloved gardens, and the little wire wickets that preserve the tulips’ front. —E. B. White

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - It was June and everywhere June was publishing her immemorial stanza; in the lilacs, in the syringa, in the freshly edged paths and the sweetness of moist beloved gardens, and the little wire wickets that preserve the tulips’ front. —E. B. White
  2. About eleven o’clock the next day, a mixed throng was gathered around the court-house steps,—smoking, chewing, spitting, swearing, and conversing, according to their respective tastes and turns,—waiting for the auction to commence. —Harriet Beecher Stowe

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - About eleven o’clock the next day, a mixed throng was gathered around the court-house steps,—smoking, chewing, spitting, swearing, and conversing, according to their respective tastes and turns,—waiting for the auction to commence. —Harriet Beecher Stowe
  3. While the objects around me—while the carvings of the ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my infancy—while I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up. —Edgar Allan Poe

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - While the objects around me—while the carvings of the ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my infancy—while I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up. —Edgar Allan Poe
  4. Let us, then, take up the sword, trusting in God, who will defend the right, remembering that these are other days than those of yore; that the world today is on the side of freedom and universal political equality; that the war cry of the howling leaders of Secession and treason is: “Let us drive back the advance guard of civil and religious freedom; let us have more slave territory; let us build stronger the tyrant system of slavery in the great American Republic.” —Alfred M. Green

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - Let us, then, take up the sword, trusting in God, who will defend the right, remembering that these are other days than those of yore; that the world today is on the side of freedom and universal political equality; that the war cry of the howling leaders of Secession and treason is: “Let us drive back the advance guard of civil and religious freedom; let us have more slave territory; let us build stronger the tyrant system of slavery in the great American Republic.” —Alfred M. Green
  5. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. —Abraham Lincoln

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. —Abraham Lincoln
  6. To this little speech Mr. Lincoln listened with earnest attention and with very apparent sympathy, and replied to each point in his own peculiar, forcible way. —Frederick Douglass

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - To this little speech Mr. Lincoln listened with earnest attention and with very apparent sympathy, and replied to each point in his own peculiar, forcible way. —Frederick Douglass
  7. I endeavoured to believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room—of the dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed. —Edgar Allan Poe

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - I endeavoured to believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room—of the dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed. —Edgar Allan Poe
  8. Though the national independence be blurred by the servility of individuals, though freedom and equality have been proclaimed only to leave room for a monstrous display of slave-dealing and slave-keeping; though the free American so often feels himself free, like the Roman, only to pamper his appetites and his indolence through the misery of his fellow beings, still it is not in vain, that the verbal statement has been made, “All men are born free and equal.” —Margaret Fuller

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - Though the national independence be blurred by the servility of individuals, though freedom and equality have been proclaimed only to leave room for a monstrous display of slave-dealing and slave-keeping; though the free American so often feels himself free, like the Roman, only to pamper his appetites and his indolence through the misery of his fellow beings, still it is not in vain, that the verbal statement has been made, “All men are born free and equal.” —Margaret Fuller
  9. Sustained by a consciousness that our transition from the former Union to the present Confederacy has not proceeded from any disregard on our part of our just obligations, or any failure to perform every constitutional duty—moved by no intention or design to invade the rights of others—anxious to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations—if we may not hope to avoid war, we may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having needlessly engaged in it. —Jefferson Davis

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - Sustained by a consciousness that our transition from the former Union to the present Confederacy has not proceeded from any disregard on our part of our just obligations, or any failure to perform every constitutional duty—moved by no intention or design to invade the rights of others—anxious to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations—if we may not hope to avoid war, we may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having needlessly engaged in it. —Jefferson Davis
  10. Under these circumstances, without attaching importance, in themselves, to the changes demanded by the champions of woman, we hail them as signs of the times. —Margaret Fuller

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - Under these circumstances, without attaching importance, in themselves, to the changes demanded by the champions of woman, we hail them as signs of the times. —Margaret Fuller
  11. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions. —Edgar Allan Poe

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exercise 3: Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences: Identify each of the following sentences as periodic, cumulative, or inverted, and discuss the impact of using that pattern. (Each sentence is a direct quotation from essays in this chapter, so you might want to check the context of the sentence to appreciate its impact more fully.) Note that some sentences use more than one unusual pattern. - I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions. —Edgar Allan Poe