Sentence Style: The Periodic Sentence

The periodic sentence, as we discussed in class, front-loads a sentence with any number of modifiers, descriptions, rhetorical figures, et al. devices before revealing, often in a climactic way, the meat of the sentence: it's main point, claim, or idea--and often that final clause recasts or reframes everything that came before it.

The periodic sentence was a favorite style in Classical Greece, but fell out of favor somewhat for its risk of contrivance or affectation and potential for conveying a self-indulgent ethos. That said, when crafted carefully and used sparingly and appropriately, the periodic sentence can prove to be an effective and artistic rhetorical move.

Some examples:

Example #1

Thick with red beans, “grade A-GEN-U-INE Black Angus beef,” and “the finest smoked hog this side of Cumberland Gap,” the chili stuck to the wooden ladle like Great Aunt Francis’ “concrete Christmas taters”---a mashed concoction of potatoes and canned cream of mushroom soup---before dribbling, chunk by juicy chunk, onto the square slab of cornbread in his Fiestaware bowl: first a cohesive mass of kidney beans, then one of Uncle Fred’s home grown hot peppers and a meaty mass of beef, pork, and sauce that splashed its hot and spicy bouillon onto John’s white tee shirt before he could say “but I’m a vegetarian.”
(word count: 105)

Example #2

Though I told him there was no one with whom I would rather spend my 25th birthday, and that the six hour drive meant little when compared with the six weeks we had spent apart— the longest we’d passed since meeting at his sister’s wedding in May— I could not tell him just what the birthday signified for me (because I did not yet know) nor could I explain his importance in the event; I only told him, in half jest, that I expected some grand epiphany to occur in passing my 25th year, some old oak door to creak open into an illuminated room of wisdom and grace in which my mind had locked, until this day, the traditions of all that had come before me and the hope of what should follow after, and I withheld from him the fact that, as we walked around the Chicago Botanical Gardens on that day, that epiphany actually occurred and the change transformed me— a change so slight that one might easily mistake its significance, a change that he precipitated as he took my hand and we walked among the roses, asters, and chrysanthemums— and the old oak door that had opened was not as heavy as I anticipated, and the room was filled with sweet autumnal perfume.
(Word count: 217)

Example #3

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the loveable cat scratched Sally.

Example #4

Of man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse...
—John Milton, Paradise Lost