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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: case of pigeon-holes where there is room for the rusty farthing
as well as for the gold medal, and which is called literature.
Slang, whether the public admit the fact or not has its syntax
and its poetry. It is a language. Yes, by the deformity of
certain terms, we recognize the fact that it was chewed by Mandrin,
and by the splendor of certain metonymies, we feel that Villon spoke it.
That exquisite and celebrated verse--
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?
But where are the snows of years gone by?
is a verse of slang. Antam--ante annum--is a word of Thunes slang,
which signified the past year, and by extension, formerly.
Les Miserables |
