Poetry Hacks

Hyphenation

What is it? Where two (or more) words are joined together using hyphens (horizontal lines that are shorter than dashes). What effect does it usually have? Hyphenation combines words to make a new one, creating a sense that what is being described is itself new, rare or unique. What else should I look out for? Where the first word is a monosyllable, hyphenation usually results in a spondee, helping to emphasise the word.

An example of how it works … ‘Bare Fig Trees’ by D. H. Lawrence:

Rather like an octopus,

but strange and sweet-myriad-limbed octopus; Like a nude, like a rock-living, sweet-fleshed sea-anemone, Flourishing from the rock

The speaker conveys the astonishing beauty of the trees, and their strange energy, in a series of outlandish similes, made even more strange and intense by the use of hyphenation.

Another example … ‘Afterwards’ by Thomas Hardy:

The May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings, Delicate-filmed as new spun silk

The hyphenation of the images in the second line helps to convey their freshness, and with 'new spun' forming a further spondee – on top of the two molossi of the first line – to create an awkward feeling that fits the restless mood of the poem.

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