The Modulated Tricolon

André Alexis in A (BookThug, 2013) offers up for the reader's delectation a tricolon in parallel. The weirdness (a hospital room with three mannequins that look like three versions of Anna Akhmatova) is alleviated by the classical poise of the prose concluding the paragraph.

They were all versions of Anna Akhmatova, young and beautiful, middle-aged and sensual, old and dignified.

We have here in miniature the course of a life with the implication that it was a life well-lived. This in part is realized by avoiding a rising tricolon where the segments get progressively longer (aka tricolon crescens) and emphasizing the modulation evoked by equally balanced segments. Such a life like such an expression lingers with finesse, impresses with gentleness and speaks with smoothness.

And so for day 1744
22.09.2011