Syntax

Consider:


When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees.

Sandra Cisneros, The house on Mango Street


1. What kind of grammatical structure is repeated in this sentence?  What is the effect of the repetition?
2. This is a periodic sentence, a sentence which DELAYS the subject and verb to the end.  What idea is emphasized by the END-FOCUS in this sentence?




Consider:
She is a woman who misses moisture, who has always loved low green hedges and ferns.
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

1. Both of the subordinate clauses in this sentence MODIFY woman.  What effect does this PARALLEL STRUCTURE have on the sentence?


2.  How would it change the feeling evoked by the sentence if it read:
She misses moisture and has always loved low green hedges and ferns.