oral delivery, are perhaps due the retention of certain constructive
elements of style. No one can study the form of Hawaiian poetry without
observing that parallelism is at the basis of its structure. The same
swing gets into the prose style. Perhaps the necessity of memorizing
also had its effect. A composition was planned for oral delivery and
intended to please the ear; tone values were accordingly of great
importance. The variation between narrative, recitative, and formal
song; the frequent dialogue, sometimes strictly dramatic; the repetitive
series in which the same act is attempted by a succession of actors, or
the stages of an action are described in exactly the same form, or a
repetition is planned in ascending scale; the singsong value of the
antithesis;[1] the suspense gained by the ejaculation[2]--all these
devices contribute values to the ear which help to catch and please the
sense.

_Footnotes to Section III, 5: Constructive Elements of Style_

[Footnote 1: The following examples are taken from the Laieikawai, where
antithesis is frequent:

"Four children were mine, four are dead."

"Masters inside and outside" (to express masters over everything).

"I have seen great and small, men and women; low chiefs, men and women;
high chiefs."

"When you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."

"As you would do to me, so shall I to you."

"I will not touch, you, you must not touch me."

"Until day becomes night and night day."

"If it seems good I will consent; if not, I will refuse."

"Camped at some distance from A's party and A's party from them."

"Sounds only by night, ... never by day."

"Through us the consent, through us the refusal."

"You above, our wife below."

"Thunder pealed, this was Waka's work; thunder pealed, this was Malio's
work."

"Do not look back, face ahead."

"Adversity to one is adversity to all;" "we will not forsake you, do not
you forsake us."

"Not to windward, go to leeward."

"Never ... any destruction before like this; never will any come
hereafter."

"Everyone has a god, none is without."

"There I stood, you were gone."

"I have nothing to complain of you, you have nothing to complain of me."

The balanced sentence structure is often handled with particular skill:

"If ... a daughter, let her die; however many daughters ... let them die."

"The penalty is death, death to himself, death to his wife, death to all