Circumlocution - Academic Mode

Definition of circumlocution
Circumlocution is a rhetorical device that can be defined as an ambiguous or paradoxical way of expressing things, ideas or points of view; in fact, when someone wants to remain ambiguous about something and does not mean anything directly, it means that they are using circumlocution.

Common characteristics
When examining all the examples of circumlocution, one would find that they share the following characteristics:

Used when the speaker cannot choose the right words to express or say something.
It is used for social purposes in To avoid the use of offensive words
It is used in politics and law, and sometimes it is difficult to judge which perspective of a politician or a lawyer should be supported.
In poetry and verse, it is used to create a metric regular. Circumlocution in Literature
Example # 1: Hamlet (By William Shakespeare)
LAERTES:
“Then, weigh what loss his honor may suffer
If with an overly believing ear you enumerate his songs,
Either you lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
to his outright importunity.

Laertes genuinely gives his dominating suggestion here, but his tone seemed to be that of a prepared speech. stop, Ofelia's feelings. By using circumlocution, he underscores her feminine inferiority.

Example 2: The Rape of the Castle (by Alexander Pope)
“Near these meadows that are forever crowned with flowers,
Where Thames proudly overlooks its soaring towers,
There is a structure of majestic framework,
which takes for the neighboring Hampton his name.
Here Britain's autumn statesmen foredoom
Dost sometimes take advice - and sometimes tea.

Not loud screams for heaven's pity are thrown,
When husbands or when lap dogs breathe their last,
Or when rich Chinese ships fall from the high ground,
In the dust painted fragments lie! "

In the previous excerpt, Pope criticizes the aristocracy by describing the Hampton Court Palace affairs and trivial occasions in royal houses.

Example 3: Kubla Khan (by S.Coleridge)
" So two five miles of fertile soil
Wall girded with walls and towers:
And there were gardens with winding grooves,
Where many a frankincense tree was in bloom;
And here forests were as ancient as the hills,
And sunny green patches unfold. “

Here, Coleridge describes the paraphrase to illustrate the underlying concepts of what is wild and the things that are protected and peaceful within the palace walls.

Example 4: Heart of Darkness (by Joseph Conrad)
“The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark green it was almost black and lined with white surf, ran straight ahead like a line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glitter and drip with steam… ”

Conrad purposely presents ambiguous descriptions of the nature of morality and truth that compel readers to engage in understanding the novella Forests and sea, of sun and fog - racial, political, psychoanalytic and feminist perspectives.

Example 5: The Importance of Seriousness (by Oscar Wilde)
"I was almost a hair's breadth of the last opportunity to speak, and I found with humiliation that I probably had nothing to say ... ”

In this excerpt, the idea of seriousness has appeared in various forms. It can be understood through its opposites. Here it is offered as the opposite of triviality and elsewhere as the opposite of seriousness. Although it is supposedly a quality of openness, the exact meanings are still vague.

Example 6: Sacred Sonnet 14 (by John Donne)
“Cut me, untie, or break the knot again;
Take me home, lock me up because I,
If you don't excite me, I'll never be free,
Not ever chaste unless you rape me. “

Donne speaks about the conflict that rages within itself, which it expresses through paraphrasing. He says a man cannot avoid Satan's influence, but he must rely on God to gain spiritual freedom from Satan.

Function of paraphrase
Paragraph is often used in poetry, music and rhetorical language. It is indeed the embellishment of putting different words together so as not to say what a person does not want to say. The paraphrase has been making the verses soft and beautiful ever since.It's a way to put harsh language aside and make words sound sweeter. However, the main use of paraphrase is to express something ambiguous, and often in poetry to create a regular rhyme. Also, it is used to give various ideas to the readers.