Repetition, or Primitive Marketing

     Anything can be profound if you mull over it long enough. Of course, when considering language, shorter phrases have greater impact, because each word is given so much value. Successful advertisements definitely tap into this (note the obscure logo above).
     I think there's something in the brain that causes people to repeat things, some compulsion to latch onto simple and easily-digested (ha) bits of speech and text. Have you ever found yourself repeating a word to yourself, under your breath, until it sounds weird? Of course, you don't even have to answer that. We all do.
     This is probably biological. I mean, look at birds--they sing the same phrases over and over. (Actually, male mice do too, according to modern research!) I wonder if poetry and song is just a more advanced expression of the same compulsive repetition. It certainly has a similar function: don't birds sing for mates? Well, don't people?
     I'm not going to be drastic and reason away the human condition in all its glory, so for counter-examples I think I should mention William Carlos Williams and Ernest Hemingway. To take a few simple words and create a work of such emotional power as "The Red Wheelbarrow" (WCW) is a perfect expression of human craftiness and that constant upward thrust of progress.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

     And then Hemingway. "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn."
     Read that again. And again. I don't care if that's amounts to the literary equivalent of succumbing to successful advertising and buying a Big Mac, just do it. But have it your way, because when it rains, it pours. (I couldn't help myself.)