Rhetoric - parataxis

parataxis [ˌpærəˈtæksɪs] n.

1.) The coordination of successive, equal clauses without expressly showing their syntactic relationship, so that the reader must infer how they are related (Garner's Modern American Usage 3rd Edition).

Etymology: modern adoption of Greek παράταξις, a placing side by side, from παρατάσσειν, to place side by side, from παρα, beside + τάσσειν, to arrange, τάξις, arrangement.

"The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star" (Walden, Henry David Thoreau, 1854).


(Looking Down Yosemite Valley, Albert Bierstadt, 1865)