Here on Walnut Street, we're trying to make more and better use of locatives -- words that have long been underemployed and undervalued. We think that the language (and therefore the world) would be richer and more commodious if others would join with us in this endeavor. But we're not evangelizing, heck no! We honor and respect each and every person's private and personal linguistic choices, locatively-speaking.
Nor do we refer to the common adverbial locatives, such as homeward, downtown, underground, or nearby. The locatives that we wish to revive and reinvigorate are the neglected -- even forsaken -- classics of locativity.
Everyone uses the locative where -- the point upon which you metaphorically stand -- but how many of us remember to employ the excellent and useful "to" form, whither, or the "from" form, whence. It's true that whither and whence sound a trifle obsolescent, but with frequent use the flexible ear will soon accommodate. One might be tempted to say "wither goest thou" or "whence com'st thou", but with a little effort, "whither do you go" and "whence do you come" will sound perfectly natural, I'm sure.
Similarly, we regularly use the word here, but by golly, we have slighted hither (to here) and hence (from here).
Equally neglectful is the abandonment of thither and thence ("to there" and "from there"). Extraordinary useful words, relegated thoughtlessly to the rear of the locative line.
And then of course, there's yon, yond and yonder, all related varieties of "there" but further off than "there." At a distance. Shakespeare, as one would expect, is a most skillful deployer of yons. From Hamlet: "But look, the morn in russet mantle clad/ Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill." From Julius Caesar. "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;/ He thinks too much; such men are dangerous." From Romeo and Juliet. "What lady's that/ Which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?"
A yonnish locative that is not endangered and continues to thrive is the word beyond. Shakespeare's most remarkable and I daresay most beautiful use of "beyond" occurs in Cymbeline, when Innogen learns that her exiled lover Posthumus Leonatus has returned to England. She is impatient to meet him at Milford Haven; Innogen's speech that begins with the plaintive cry, "O, for a horse with wings" includes the most transcendent barrier-busting locative in the entire history of the English language. Her longing to see her lover is, she claims, "beyond beyond." A superlative locative, beyond anyone's imagination but Will's.
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