Parataxis is the sequencing of clauses or phrases whereby there is no conjunction to connect or indicate the relationship between one clause or phrase and the other. In "Easter 1916," there are several examples of parataxis.
At the end of the fist stanza, Yeats writes, "All changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty is born." Here there is no conjunction between the phrases "All changed" and "changed utterly" or between the latter phrase and the subsequent clause, "A terrible beauty is born." The parataxis in this instance perhaps echoes the surprising suddenness of the change, from the speaker's perspective. Indeed, the absence of conjunctions creates a slightly fragmented, disjointed feel to the lines, echoing the apparent disconnection between them and suddenness of the change from one situation to the other. Yeats employs parataxis at the end of the second and fourth stanzas for much the same effect. Again, he signals the suddenness of the change, or "Transform[ation]," by omitting conjunctions between the phrases and clauses in the final three lines of each stanza.
Yeats also uses parataxis throughout the poem for a second, distinct effect, which is to emphasize the degree of change that has occurred. For example, in the first and fourth stanzas, he writes that "All changed, changed utterly." The repetition of the word "changed" with the second use of the word following on immediately from the first simply emphasizes the degree or scale of the change that has taken place.
Yeats uses parataxis for a similar effect also in stanza two, when he describes one of the revolutionaries as "drunken, vainglorious." Although the words in this example are different from one another, they both have broadly negative connotations, and Yeats emphasizes those connotations by having one word follow on immediately from the other, without a conjunction placed between them.
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