Decline
In English literature the decline of the periodic sentence's popularity goes hand in hand with the development toward a less formal style, which some authors date to the beginning of the Romantic period, specifically the 1798 publication of the Lyrical Ballads, and the prevalence in twentieth-century literature of spoken language over written language. In American literature, scholars note the explicit rejection by Henry David Thoreau of the formal style of his time, of which the periodic sentence was characteristic; in his journal, Thoreau criticized those sentences as the "weak and flowing periods of the politician and scholar."
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Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)
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