Chiasmus
Definition:
A chiasmus is a literary tool where a rhetoric figure of speech is utilized. The uniqueness of a chiasmus arises from the fact that it has two fractions in the whole phrase/ prose/ paragraph and these two fractions are in sync with one another. The second fraction is arranged in a syntactically tuned form with respect to the first.
Example:
You can take the patriot out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the patriot"
Comments
10 comments postedIt is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
That is hilarious. A type of pun-chiasmus. Thanks for sharing.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
It's not size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
She doen't love them and leave them, she just leaves when she loves them.
You like me, and I, like you, like me.
Is "Better be late, Mister, than a late mister." an example of this?
No, Chiasmuses (?) usually have a clever way of rearranging the next part of the sentence to reflect the first.
Eg. You can take the girl out of Arizona, but you can't take the Arizona out of the girl" and phrases like this are good examples. There are also numerous examples of chiasmus in the Bible. :)
Its better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
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