Gradation

Gradation is a stylistic figure consisting in such an arrangement of words, images or parts of an utterance that each successive element strengthens (climax) or weakens (anticlimax) the semantic or emotional significance of the preceding one. Ascending gradation builds tension, leading the thought to a culmination ("came, saw, conquered"); descending gradation, on the contrary, gradually lowers the intensity. Gradation rests on the quantitative or qualitative increase of a feature and is closely linked to the rhythm and syntactic parallelism of the utterance. It is widely used in oratorical speech, journalism and poetry to create a dynamic unfolding of thought and an emotional effect. Gradation is an important means of the expressive syntax of a literary text.