Catacosmesis

Catacosmesis is the Greek word for "to set in order".[1] In rhetoric, it refers to a device in which there is a descending order of words or phrases, either in order of importance, dignity or time, and either abrupt or gradual.[2][3] It is considered to be synonymous with anticlimax.[4] The opposite of catacosmesis is auxesis when used to refer to climax, wherein a series of clauses has increasing, rather than decreasing, force.[1] Catacosmesis is distinct from bathos because the former is a relative term, requiring that a phrase or word is proceeded by something greater in dignity, time, or some other metric, whereas bathos may apply to an entire work, text, or speech, with no major changes in dignity.[2]

Look up catacosmesis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

An example of catacosmesis is:[5]

I die, I faint, I fail.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Indian Serenade

Here, the verbs "die", "faint", and "fail" are arranged such that the most important of them (die) is first and the least important (fail) last.

Another example of catacosmesis is the Yale University motto:[6][7]

For God, for country, and for Yale.

Here, the nouns "God", "country", and "Yale" are ordered so that the most important (God) is first and the least important (Yale) last.

Catacosmesis may also be used for humorous statements due to the juxtaposition of phrases leading to the anticlimax, as in the following statement:

He has seen the ravages of war, he has known natural catastrophes, he has been to singles bars.

— Woody Allen

See also

References
  1. Greene, Roland (2017). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4th ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691154916.
  2. "Anticlimax" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 123.
  3. Peachum, Henry; Crane, Gregory (1977). "The Garden of Eloquence Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, Inc". Perseus Digital Library.
  4. Lanham, Richard A. (1991-01-01). A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. University of California Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-520-07669-3.
  5. DELASANTA, RODNEY (1965). "Shelley's "Sometimes Embarrassing Declarations": A Defence". Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 7 (2): 173, 174, 176. ISSN 0040-4691. JSTOR 40753856.
  6. Kulikov, Sergey B. (24 January 2018). "Wittgenstein Studies and Contemporary Pyrrhonism". Philosophia. 46 (4): 930–931. doi:10.1007/s11406-018-9946-0. ISSN 0048-3893. S2CID 255164384.
  7. Liberman, Myron M.; Foster, Edward E. (1968). A Modern Lexicon of Literary Terms. Scott, Foresman. p. 85.
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