We See the Blowhard Biting the End of His Pen

Monday, January 23, 2006 at 08:59AM
Figaro

Quote: "We hear the axe. We see the flame of burning cabins and hear the cry of the savage." Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance

Figure of Speech: enargia (en AR gia), the before-your-very-eyes figure.

In 1892, Bellamy, the ordained minister who wrote the Pledge and forgot to put "under God" in it, published it in The Youth's Companion along with an "address" that celebrates Columbus's arrival in America. To spice things up, Bellamy uses enargia, the special effects of rhetoric. Instead of saying, "Our ancestors cleared the forest and suffered at the hands of understandably pissed-off natives," Bellamy offers striking detail that makes the audience feel it's right there with the settlers.

Ancient rhetoricians really believed in enargia (it means "vividness" in Greek). They thought it acted as a psychotropic drug to produce mass hallucination among susceptible crowds.

And people say rhetoric's uncool.

Snappy Answer: "Why didn't someone rescue that poor savage?"

Article originally appeared on Figures of Speech (http://inpraiseofargument.com/).