Saturday 14 June 2014

A Paraprosdokian of Sorts



When it came to coming second
He was at first two far behind
Living days of too much midnight
spent chewing fat on never mind

She had a zest for fun and games
A lamppost world of village light
With her friends among the shadows
On the darker side of bright

They roomed together joyously
Living weeks of fourteen days
A life of candle wicks both ends
A blur of heightened low displays


Paraprosdokian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraprosdokian 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
paraprosdokian /pærəprɒsˈdkiən/ is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.[1] Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase, but they also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a form of syllepsis.
  • "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." —Groucho Marx[11]




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