De Copia – Demonstration of the Variety of Language

In De Copia, Erasmus re-writes the same sentence over and over to demonstrate the variety of language.

Think of your own sentence, or pull a sentence from another source, to re-write 25-30 times.

Here is one example:

30 variations of “A loud sound awakes me in the night”

1. In the bewitching hour, a resonant buzz raises me out of my crib.

2. A noisy growl returns me to my consciousness in the dead of night.

3. After dark, I am wide-awake because of a powerful bang.

4. I can no longer sleep due to the harsh noise in darkness of the day

5. I rise out of bed because of a deafening noise in the nighttime.

6. At the time when the moon is out high and bright, I become conscious due to a resonant sound.

7. A crazy roaring awake me at the darkness of the day.

8. In the night, a blaring sound wakes me up.

9. The god of sleep has abandoned me when a loud noise strikes out in the night.

10. In the dark hours, a big wave of sound had me awakened.

11. I am awakened by the vociferous noise after dark.

12. I am forced to end my body resting process at bedtime due to a powerful boom after dark.

13. An extremely harsh buzz forces me out of my dream at the bewitching hour.

14. I am left alone by the god of dream and nightmare when a noisy sound bothers my ears.

15. In the night, a loud sound wakes me up.

16. After dark, I rise out of my crib because of an annoying wailing.

17. I wake up because of a heavy bang in the dark hours.

18. I become conscious due to a resonant sound in the dark time of the day.

19. After dark, an intense buzz forces me out of my body resting process.

20. I am awakened by the thundering sound when the sun had rested long time ago.

21. A powerful boom makes me rise out of my sleepiness in the pitch black.

22. A heavy cry awakes me in the dead of night.

23. A deafening noise in the nighttime has me rise out of bed.

24. An unpleasant sound has awakened me after dark.

25. At a bewitching hour, a blaring noise wakes me up.

26. My dream ends abruptly because of a noisy growl in the pitch-black time of the day.

27. In the night, I come to my conscious due to the blaring noise.

28. When the moon shines bright and high, I am forced out of my dream because of a thundering sound.

29. My sleep is ended when I hear a loud noise after dark.

30. In the night, a resonant howl awakes me.