Polysyndeton

 

 

What a strange word

But what does it mean?

I will show you in this poem

What I have gleaned.

 

Verse 3 and verse 5

Of Genesis chapter 22:

Here is a little assignment

I want you to do.

 

Focus on those verses

And you’ll get an idea

Of an interesting polysyndeton

Standing in the way.

 

Find the word repeated

More than any other,

Checking just these two verses

Shouldn’t be a bother.

 

You can pause here

Before you continue

And concentrate on the task

I have given you.

 

 

You must be saying,

What a really weird name

And before I had understood,

I thought the same.

 

I was studying this text

In a way unlike before

When an Internet presentation

Shone light in my door.

 

It was a study showing

How we have strayed

Regarding Bible based worship

In a significant way.

 

Mentioned in the Bible

First at Genesis 22 verse 5

Where God a timely sacrifice

Did provide.

 

In the place of Isaac

A ram temporarily sufficed:

A foreshadowing in actual fact

Of God’s sacrifice.

 

The sacrifice of Jesus

His promised Son

On whom He did established

His heavenly kingdom.

 

You’ve had much time

To find that word:

The first known conjunction

Most have heard.

 

 

Genesis 22:3

 

 And Abraham rose up early in the morning,

And saddled his ass,

And took two of his young men with him,

And Isaac his son,

And clave the wood for the burnt offering,

And rose up,

And went unto the place

Of which God had told him.

 

Genesis 22:5

 

And Abraham said unto his young men,

Abide ye here with the ass;

And I

And the lad will go yonder

And worship,

And come again to you.

 

Seven “ands” in verse 3

And five “ands” in verse 5

And at the purpose of this poem

We have now arrived.

 

 

Polysyndeton is the name

For this use of a conjunction,

No doubt English teachers today

Would have an objection.

 

But it’s a description

Rather detailed, I believe,

That Abraham specifically followed

As from God he received.

 

Worship is our response

To God for Jesus Christ,

The Lamb from God, the Father,

His enduring sacrifice.

 

Typified in these verses

By a rather strange word

Showing the length God went to

To redeem His world.

 

Matthew 2:21

 

And she

Shall bring forth a child

And shall call his name Jesus

And he shall save his people

From their sin.

 

Stewart Russell © October 22, 2024