01641--asyndeton

Asyndeton (plural -deta) is a form of verbal compression which consists of the omission of connecting words (usually conjunctions) between clauses. The most common form is the omission of'and', leaving only a sequence of phrases linked by commas, as in these sentences from Conrad's Heart of Darkness: 'An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was thick, warm, heavy, sluggish.' The most famous example is Julius Caesar's boast, Veni, vidi, via ( I came, I saw, I conquered'). Less common is the omission of pronouns, as in Auden' s early poem "The Watershed': 'two there were / Cleaned out a damaged shaft by hand'. Here the relative pronoun 'who' is omitted. Adjective: asyndetic.