The rhythm of the words is counterbalanced by that of the subtly interrelated lines,
creating images in which each part
of each character, as well as the relationship of every character to every other, sparkles with allusive
meaning.
— Andre Leroi-Gourhan, Gesture and Speech (tr. Anna Bostock
Berger,
MIT Press, 1993; orig. Le Geste et la Parole, Editions Albin Michel, 1964)