literary elegance
Writing with grace
Literary elegance is a quality of refined, graceful expression in writing—prose or verse that achieves its effects with apparent ease and economy.
The phrase suggests controlled beauty rather than ornamentation: sentences that flow naturally, word choices that feel inevitable, structures that please without calling attention to themselves.
Her essays are models of literary elegance.
- poignancyPiercing emotional quality
- eloquencePersuasive verbal grace
- cohesionTendency to bind together
- timelessnessFreedom from temporal decay
- dictionChoice of words
well-turned phrase · mot juste · subtlety · universality · balance · lyricism · lyrical beauty · cadence · symmetry · symbolism · imagery · clarity · catharsis · syntax · charm · narrative flow · grace · innovation
literary elegancecrudeness
Lack of sophistication
gracelessness · clumsiness · inelegance · awkwardness · artlessness
literary eleganceplainness
Unadorned, straightforward quality
starkness · bareness · austerity · spareness · simplicity
literary elegancevulgarity
Offensive coarseness in manner
crassness · coarseness · boorishness · uncouthness · baseness
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