Pattern

pattern

For constructing any work of art you need some principle of repetition or recurrence; that's what gives you rhythm in music and pattern in painting.

Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

A common device in music is to repeat a theme by variations, or to repeat some phrase over and over again. With every recurrence one is pleased, as at recognizing something familiar. The same device has been used with good effect in the Short-story. Poe recognized its value both for poetry and for prose. In the Short-story it may be variously used: sometimes the theme may be thus emphasized; sometimes a refrain is suggestive of the

max, of ', the purpose, — sometimes only of tone. Jr may take several forms: it may be a set phrase or a genuine refrain; it may recur in variations of a single idea. Yet whatever the form, the device is sure to deepen the impression. These variations may stand out boldly, or they may be so deftly wrought into the context as to be scarcely noticeable. Yet the same subtle effect is always produced, and, though the device is simple, it is powerful for unity. Two or three kinds may appear in the same

story without detracting from the effect of anyone of them, or without becoming wearisome.

In The Masque of the Red Death, the tall ebony clock intensifies mightily the awfulness of the scene. A refrain or a phrase repeated with variations may thus assist tone; it may even represent the steady, irresistible oncoming of destiny; if skillfully used, it might hasten movement itself and make action more tense. From a different field, in The Charge of the Light Brigade, one has a good instance. Action is definitely hastened by the repeated refrain:

"Into the valley of death Rode the six hundred. "

To a passenger on an express train, the sight of telegraph poles streaming backwards along the way seems to accelerate the movement. As a matter of fact, the poles do not make progress; they only mark it. A refrain in a story of intense action may have like value.