I've often been accused, among other things wholly unprintable, of being too liberal with rhetoric in my writing, as if I were a party politician sitting in opposition. My ideas have been attacked as mere rhetoric. While I do understand, having associated itself with politicians has given rhetoric a bad reputation - in truth, however, it makes the most of a thought; dressing it for effectiveness on occasion. For who would quote the most famous lines of history, literature, and poetry if it weren't for the artful way they were projected?

Here, can you recognise these famous lines with the rhetoric shaken out?

1- Should I live?

2- The Earth wasn't much until god said, Lights! And the lights came on. That’s nice, he said.

3- It was an okay time, kind of a mixed bag.

4- Thick forest this, nice though. Cant rest now, maybe later.

5- Muchness? What is muchness?

6- Seems a bit stupid, doesn't he?

Let’s face it, rhetoric is not quite as mere as it is made out to be:

The Originals:

1- To be or not to be, that is the question- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

2-And the earth was without form, and void. And god said " Let there be light: and there was light, and god saw the light, that it was good - Genesis 1:2-4

3- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times- Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)

4- The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep - Robert Frost (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening)

5- You know you say things are much of a muchness. Did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?- Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)

6- Somewhere a village is missing its idiot- JayM (Great Rail Tales)

There is, at the end of it all, a need for a writer to tell a story, instead of merely using words to string together into logical sentences.

Let’s hear it for rhetoric, which writes it's own destiny, and defines the destiny of authors; with a pinch of salt coating tongue firmly in cheek!!!

By PritiJ

From India

Twitter: PritiJtweets