THE EPIGRAMMATIC STYLE:
Stephen Crane.
A peculiarly modern style is that in which very short sentences are used
for pungent effect. If to this characteristic of short sentences we
add a slightly unusual though perfectly obvious use of common words, we
have what has been called the “epigrammatic style,” though it does not
necessarily have any epigrams in it. It is the modern newspaper and
advertisement writer's method of emphasis; and if it could be used in
moderation, or on occasion, it would be extremely effective. But to use
it at all times and for all subjects is a vice distinctly to be avoided.
Stephen Crane's “The Red Badge of Courage” is written almost wholly in
this style. If we read three or four chapters of this story we may see
how tiring it is for the mind to be constantly jerked along. At the
same time, in a brief advertising booklet probably no other style that
is sufficiently simple and direct would be as likely to attract immediate
attention and hold it for the short time usually required to read an
advertisement.
Crane's style has a literary turn and quality which will not be found
in the epigrammatic advertisement, chiefly because Crane is descriptive,
while the advertiser is merely argumentative. However, the
advertisement writer will learn the epigrammatic style most surely
and quickly by studying the literary form of it.
From “The Red Badge of Courage.”
The blue haze of evening was upon the field. The lines of forest were
long purple shadows. One cloud lay along the western sky partly
smothering the red.
As the youth left the scene behind him, he heard the guns suddenly roar
out. He imagined them shaking in black rage. They belched and howled
like brass devils guarding a gate. The soft air was filled with the
tremendous remonstrance. With it came the shattering peal of opposing
infantry. Turning to look behind him, he could see sheets of orange
light illumine the shadowy distance. There were subtle and sudden
lightnings in the far air. At times he thought he could see heaving
masses of men.
He hurried on in the dusk. The day had faded until he could barely
distinguish place for his feet. The purple darkness was filled with men
who lectured and jabbered. Sometimes he could see them gesticulating
against the blue and somber sky. There seemed to be a great ruck of men
and munitions spread about in the forest and in the fields…
His thoughts as he walked fixed intently upon his hurt. There was a
cool, liquid feeling about it and he imagined blood moving slowly down
under his hair. His head seemed swollen to a size that made him think
his neck to be inadequate.
The new silence of his wound made much worriment. The little blistering
voices of pain that had called out from his scalp were, he thought,
definite in their expression of danger. By them he believed that he could
measure his plight. But when they remained ominously silent he became
frightened and imagined terrible fingers that clutched into his brain.
Amid it he began to reflect upon various incidents and conditions of the
past. He bethought him of certain meals his mother had cooked at home,
in which those dishes of which he was particularly fond had occupied
prominent positions. He saw the spread table. The pine walls of
the kitchen were glowing in the warm light from the stove. Too, he
remembered how he and his companions used to go from the school-house
to the bank of a shaded pool. He saw his clothes in disorderly array
upon the grass of the bank. He felt the swash of the fragrant water
upon his body. The leaves of the overhanging maple rustled with melody
in the wind of youthful summer.
Exercise.
After reading this passage over a dozen times very slowly and carefully,
and copying it phrase by phrase, continue the narrative in Crane's style
through two more paragraphs, bringing the story of this day's doing to
some natural conclusion.