Lara 1

Very suddenly there came back to my soul motion and sound -- the tumultuous motion
of the heart, and, in my ears, the sound of its beating. Then a pause in which all is blank
(noun with adverbial phrase). Then again sound, and motion, and touch -- a tingling
sensation pervading my frame. Then the mere consciousness of existence, without
thought -- a condition which lasted long (adjective clause describing a condition) . Then,
very suddenly, thought, and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my
true state. Then a strong desire to lapse into insensibility. Then a rushing revival of soul
and a successful effort to move. And now a full memory of the trial, of the judges, of the
sable draperies, of the sentence, of the sickness, of the swoon.
Adverbial time
Appositives
Listing that starts off with 2,3, and then 6
Short quick phrases
Cecilia Lara
S. Trechter
English 375
11 December 2015
Swaying
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Alan Poe is a short story of deep dark

despair and torture. It starts off with a man in a dark room being judged by three figures,

and he is found guilty. He is then in a dark cell unable to see where he trips and lands

on the edge of a pit. He then falls asleep, and wakes up finding himself ties to a cot with

a large swinging pendulum that goes back and forth. It seems that every minute the

pendulum swings the closer it gets to cutting the man into pieces. For this paper I used

the brief moment the man talks about his surroundings as the pendulum swings

overhead. The grammar used by Poe mimics that of what is happening to the man as

he struggles to relieve himself from the restrains of being tied down.

As a reader we see the use of passing time that starts slow and then as the

pendulum swings becomes faster and faster. The passing of time is seen in adverbs at
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the beginning of almost every fragment. Six of the eight phrases all beginning with the

adverbial time then. Showing that this description is passing through the time it is taking

for the pendulum to come closer and closer.

As readers, we can tell that the narrator is in distress and that the descriptions

are in a sense a stream of consciousness. very suddenly, thought, and shuddering

terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state (Poe). None of the phrases

following the initial clause, Very suddenly there came back to my soul motion and

sound are actual sentences (Poe). Instead, they are phrases that have pieces of

sentence components into them like appositives, but they lack both subject and finite

verb. Then again sound, and motion, and touch -- a tingling sensation pervading my

frame (Poe). Poe uses the grammar here to show case the distress the narrator is in in

this quick moment as the pendulum gets closer and closer to cutting him in half. It is

almost as if we are in the head of the narrator, and these are all the thoughts that are

passing through his mind as he is stuck in this crisis.

Another concept to consider is the use of appositives in almost every fragment.

The appositives serve as a way to mimic the pendulums movements. Some include, the

tumultuous motion of the heart, and, in my ears, the sound of its beating (Poe). And

also within the third phrase, -- a tingling sensation pervading my frame (Poe). Within

these appositives we get the listing of items that pertain to the man. In the first fragment

there is a list of two things that are meant to describe sound. Then there is a quick

interruption as the pendulum pauses before swing back to the other side. Then a list of

three, Then, very suddenly, thought, and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to

comprehend my true state as the pendulum swings followed by an appositive

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describing (Poe). In the moving from two items to three we see that the pendulum is

getting faster and closer as it swings to and fro.

We get two more fragments then another quick short fragment as the pendulum

stops once again before it returns to its swinging. Then the mere consciousness of

existence, without thought -- a condition which lasted long. Then, very suddenly,

thought, and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state.

Then a strong desire to lapse into insensibility (Poe). And then we get the last phrase

that is significantly longer than all the rest and contains six different listed items, And

now a full memory of the trial, of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the sentence, of

the sickness, of the swoon (Poe). These are the sentences in which the pendulum is so

close and so fast that the narrator at any time is going to be sawed in half by order of

the three judges.

All of the grammatical devices that are used in this short passage are put there to

mimic the story of the pendulum and its journey to kill the man that is tied to the cot.

Through the adverbs of time transition to the swings of the pendulum. Sentence

fragments allow stream of consciousness. Through appositives that list and describe

what is before them we see the pendulum swing back and forth. And lastly through the

listing we get the speed of the pendulum. Through all these grammatical components

Poe mimics the action of the pendulum through grammar structure.