inversions 8 318

Inversion is writing which reverses the usual order of words (S-V-C structure). It may be used in poetry to help the writer to make a rhyme or put particular emphasis on a word. An example would be:
"Mad indeed would I be to expect it..."
"I would be mad indeed..."
Here it is about creating an effect used to draw you deeper into the story. In both examples above, the adjective "mad" is an attention grabber (probably stressed more in the first sentence than it would be in the middle of the clause).
In the first sentence it is presented at the beginning to give a kind of preface to the rest of the sentence and to catch your eye-mind-emotion chain. In the second sentence it takes your eye-to-mind reception a few milliseconds more to get to the dynamic adjective.
Here's a few more:
a. C-S-V: "Legal behaviour it may be; moral behaviour it is not." b. C-V-S: "A very reckless man is William Jefferson." c. V-S-C: ?'Ride you this afternoon?'? (Macbeth, III,I,21) d. C-S-V: "'Up you go!'"
Note that inversion makes italicizing stressed words unnecessary. This might be a good strategy for all those who only have UE BASIC, as we can't show stress without resorting to tactics similar to those Ivᮠfeels a need to-CAPITALISING. Yet it must be remembered that inversion can seem extremely artificial in English, it is used only rarely--when required for cohesion, conciseness or emotional stress on certain words