Climax! Hang on, it's not the kind of climax you would see in a cinema, where the hero beats up a platoon of toughies to rescue the love of his life. In fact, climax here represent a figure of speech, where words, phrases or sentences are placed in an ascending order, according to their importance. In simple terms, words that pack in a less punch are placed first, while words that pack a more powerful punch are placed at the end of the sentence. This is a strategy of sorts used to build up tension and let it all loose with a certain expected or not-so-expected revelation. A climax is not to be confused with an anti-climax. While a climax is about creating anticipation that leads to a point of surprise, an anti-climax creates anticipation only to lead to disappointment. Read on to discover examples on climax. These examples will help you understand better this particular figure of speech.
Examples Of Climax
Climax In Poetry
Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns;
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.
I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach.
What loud uproar bursts from that door!
The wedding-guests are there:
But in the garden-bower the bride
And bride-maids singing are;
And hark the little vesper bell,
Which biddeth me to prayer!
O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide wide sea:
So lonely 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.
O sweeter than the marriage-feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company! -
To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,
While each to his great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay!
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone; and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.
He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man
He rose the morrow morn. - 'The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner 'by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Above given are the lines that finish off the poem, 'The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner'. The climax in the poem occurs when the 'ancient mariner' has a change of heart, leading to the fall of the albatross from his neck.
Climax In Literature
"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified and made practically assailable in Moby Dick." - An extract from 'Moby Dick'
Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. - -Lines borrowed from 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare
Climax In Regular Language