What went unsaid, but clearly implied, was that they had a right but not a reason to be proud of me.
Erasure by Percival Everett
The dependent clause often gets mistreated. (In my early days of teaching, I know I’m guilty of this. ) The label “dependent” doesn’t mean secondary or second-rate to the main clause, yet writers are often told to put the most important ideas in the main clauses and lesser ideas in dependent or subordinate clauses. “Dependent” refers not to logic or semantics but to structure. Structurally, the dependent clause can’t stand alone, so it relies on or depends on the main independent clause.
In this sentence, Everett uses a dependent clause not as second class but as the subject of his sentence: “What went unsaid, but clearly implied.”
What is also implied is that this dependent clause is a question: What went unsaid but is clearly implied?
The linking verb, “was,” follows and then a relative clause, which answers the opening question: “that they had a right but not a reason to be proud of me.”
This syntax has a name: “wysiwyg” an acronym for “What you see is what you get.” According to Virginia Tufte in Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, these clauses are “terse aphoristic, pointed, occurring singly or in pairs or larger groups.” They’ve also been around for a while. Here’s Shakespeare from Measure for Measure: “What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.”
With this structure, Everett creates a beautiful rhythm by building a pattern of alternating soft stresses and heavier stresses called iamb. (heavier stresses in bold). The iambic is the paramount sound in any string of English words. “Rhythm,” writes Mary Oliver in A Poetry Handbook, “is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue…. When it becomes reliable, we are in a kind of body-heaven.”
What went unsaid but clearly implied
was that they had a right
but not a reason
to be proud of me.
He also uses balance, the pairing of two things, with “but” serving as a hinge in two different places in the sentence. He invokes alliteration with the balance “right/reason,” making the sentence even more musical.
Your Turn
Open with a dependent clause that begins with “What.” This clause will serve as your subject. One way to think about this is to ask what question can be implicitly posed in this dependent clause.
Now, use a linking verb and follow with a clause or phrase that answers that question. Can you add a pattern of heavier and softer stresses? Alliteration?
How did it go?
What else do you see?
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What was thought, but left unsaid, was true, but not a reason to be unkind.
Fascinating how our minds work. The social and psychological value we put on the word "dependent" that colors our whole perception of it. I appreciate how you unpack this phenomena: "The label “dependent” doesn’t mean secondary or second-rate to the main clause . . . “Dependent” refers not to logic or semantics but to structure. Structurally, the dependent clause can’t stand alone, so it relies on or depends on the main independent clause."