If you want your gradation to work, the items need to be similar and progressive...

		lbreakjai 16 days ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Digg is gone again If you want your gradation to work, the items need to be similar and progressively stronger. That's why it doesn't work. A wall is not "stronger" than a moat. "Not a fence, a rampart" would work. Compare to the canonical example from Cyrano de Bergerac: ''Tis a rock! ... a peak! ... a cape! -- A cape, forsooth! 'Tis a peninsular!'

Yes I think that’s another reason this sentence doesn’t work well.