Does this literary device/technique have a name? (beehaw.org)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by EponymousBosh@beehaw.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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So John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats does this thing in some of his lyrics where he'll start a sentence out with a verb as though it's an imperative, but it's from a first-person POV. There's a lot of examples but the song "Counterfeit Florida Plates" is the one that comes to mind first, for me. Is there a technical term for what he's doing here?

EDIT: changed wording to be less ambiguous

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[-] neptune@dmv.social 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks for not blaming me.

According to Google, a garden path sentence is one that misleads or tricks. Part of speech doesn't seem to be a definitional feature. Unless someone comes up with a better answer, I think I might be right.

this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024

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