Preview this article: Geometry, Vision, and Poetic Form, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ce/39/6/collegeenglish16180-1.gif

THE WORDS PALINDROMIE palindromic refer to a well-known formal pattern that is shared bv certain words, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, verses: e.g., Odo tenet mulum, madidam mappam tenet Anna, Anna tenet mappam madidam, mulum tenet Odo.' It is this formal pattern, which always occurs at least on the level of the letters in these language units, that is important here. The palindrome is essentially a reversal pattern that pivots around a center. However, since the quantity of letters in a palindrome mayv be odd or even in number, the center of a palindrome might be one of two kinds. If there is an odd number of letters, the center will be a non-repeated letter, the c in A man, a plan, a canal-Panama!2 And if there is an even number of letters, the center will be a point in space, it were, between two identical letters, between the two a's in Subi dura a rudibus.3 Except for their reversal pattern, the twofold nature of their centers, the equality reversed identity of their two halves, palindromes are not fixed formally are highly variable in length complexitnr.4 Indeed, a palindrome may vary from these ideal conditions still be a palindrome. For instance, the comma the word and are notipart of the reversal pattern in as Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel.5 The possibility of such variations, which are generally held to a minimum, might be a further characteristic of the palindrome, inasmuch the demands of syntax meaning sometimes make them unavoidable.