Monosyllable (September)

September is not altogether an English gentleman. “The more monosyllables that you use, the truer Englishman you shall seeme, and the lesse you shall smell of the Inkhorne,” extols Gascoigne (1575). Berryman thinks Shakespeare “very fond of monosyllables,” that “about one-tenth” of lines in the sonnets are entirely monosyllabic, a cause for “the poet’s blunt force.” We were taught the same at the polysyllabic university, by inkhorn academics whose jargon could outmanoeuvre entire oeuvres. We smiled at Rabelais’ monks conversing in one-word dialogues, obedient to Our Lord’s command to say just yes or no. Shakespeare worked with whatever words worked.