20 Examples of Chiasmus

The chiasmus, also called antimetabola, antimetalepsis or antimetastasis, is a rhetorical or literary figure which consists of the repetition of equal terms in the same sentence, but exchanging or reversing the order of symmetry. It is thus a parallelism crossed, in which the elements that are repeated appear first in one order (A-B-C) and then in the opposite order (C-B-A), as if there were a mirror in the middle. For example: Everyone gave something, but some gave everything.

The word chiasmus derives from the Greek chiasmos which means “change or crossing”. Hence, it consists of inverting the order or the idea of ​​the words within a sentence. Usually, it is a literary figure that appears in writings in prose, however, can also be used in poetry.

It is a figure of repetition belonging to the group of figures of speech, and its purpose is usually to lead the reader to a more abstract thought of the idea that is meant. It is used in many linguistic fields such as politics, philosophy, literature and in the

colloquial language, in which it is used in sayings popular and humorous texts.

• See also: poetic resources

The chiasmus as a pun

There is a type of chiasmus known as pun, which consists of crossing the syntactic functions of words, that is, reorganizing the elements of a sentence differently in another, so that their meaning is contrary to what they had in the first. For example: There are many people who are poor but deserve wealth, while others are rich and deserve poverty.. In this way, the adjectives “poor” and “rich” exchange their position to thus constitute a pun-type chiasmus.

examples of chiasmus

1. Don't ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. (JohnF. Kennedy – “Inauguration Speech”)
2. Humanity must put an end to war or war will end humanity.
3. I woke up, picked up a book and started reading, when I finished reading, I put the book down and fell asleep.
4. There are many people who are poor but deserve wealth, while others are rich and deserve poverty.
5. When I try to remember I don't remember, but sometimes I remember without looking for it.
6. Eyes,
   I don't know what I expect
   seeing how you treat me,
   then if you see me, you kill me;
   and if I look at you, I die.
   (Francisco Quevedo)
7. Many of those who live deserve death. Many of those who die deserve to live. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
8. Neither are all those who are, nor are all those who are.
9. fruit trees
   loaded,
   golden
   wheat fields
   (Manuel Machado – “Summer”)
10. You can remove the patriot from the country but you cannot remove the country from the patriot.
11. You can punish and force someone's body and will on the outside, but on the inside you can't change it if their philosophy is firm and their own.
12. The piety of man can be questioned, but the piety of man cannot be denied.
13. Some give a lot to do something, but others give everything to achieve it.
14. A right can be taken away from man, but a right cannot be taken away from man.
15. You can make a person happy, but that person will not necessarily make you happy.
16. So much respect, so many inclinations showed cups and dejected souls. (Diego de Hojeda, The Cristiada)
17. We need to live simply so that others can simply live. (Mahatma Gandhi)
18. Woman, you are flare. Flare you are, woman.
19. When I was hungry, I had no food and now that I have food, I am not hungry.
20. Don't ask what your parents can do for you. Ask what you can do for them.

Follow with:

• dilogy
• diaphore
• isocolon
• Epanadiplosis
• complexion