One of you went into new territory in a glossary entry on "periphrasis," nice work! Most of us real mortals have always called excess verbage "circumlocution." However, My mother, a lover of metaphor, used to say, "Sit down and quit dancing around" or "Just spit it out!" when an explanation or excuse was getting too long for her attention span. You may have had similar thoughts while reading The Scarlet Letter. Here is a great site that talks about this technique and gives terrific examples: Periphrasis site.
Happy hunting grounds for wordiness: "The Victorians and Romantics are our friends as we embark on the worthy endeavor of capturing the essence of how word-loving authors lovingly work out torturous phrases in order to convey, with flourish and great attention to beauty, some very plain ideas." Translation: Check out Bronte, Hawthorne, Keats, and Shelly for examples of periphrasis)
