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.