CHIASMUS

WHAT IS IT?

• When words in two parallel clauses are reversed in the second.
• Basically changes the meaning of a phrase
• Is the reverse of 2 words in the phrase
• Often used in quotations by people and in the Bible
• The "X" notation

EXAMPLES

• Home is where the great are small
• And the small are great.
• One should eat to live
• Not live to eat.

EXAMPLE OR NOT?

• Wish not so much to live long
• But to live well
• I flee who chases me
• And chase who flees me

EXAMPLES IN LITERATURE

• "But many that are first shall be last
• And the last shall be first"
• Matthew 7:6
• I mean what I say and I say what I mean
• Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

YOUR TURN