grammar - "Dazzling images do not a shining nation make"





Why is “xxxx doth not a yyyy make” considered valid English?



Is



Dazzling images do not a shining nation make



correct grammatically? To me it should be



Dazzling images do not make a shining nation.



Does the shifting of make emphasize the meaning?



Answer



This is an example of the rhetorical device known as anastrophe.


From the Wikipedia article:



Anastrophe (from the Greek: ἀναστροφή, anastrophē, "a turning back or about") is a figure of speech in which a language's usual word order is inverted: for example, saying "smart you are" to mean "you are smart".


In English, because its natural word order is settled, anastrophe emphasizes the displaced word or phrase.



So yes, it is used for emphasis.


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