Chiastic

What is Chiasmus? (Part 1): drmardy.com

What is Chiasmus? (Part 1)
The Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the world's greatest dictionary, defines chiasmus as, "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other."
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms by Chris Baldick provides a more extensive description:

chiasmus [ky-AZ-mus] (plural -mi), a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same words ("Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure" —Byron) or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas … . The figure is especially common in 18th century English poetry, but is also found in prose of all periods. It is named after the Greek letter chi (x), indicating a "criss-cross" arrangement of terms. Adjective: chiastic.

As you can see, the proper adjective is chiastic and not "chiasmic" or "chiasmatic," as I've heard some say. Technically, the plural is chiasmi, (as with hippopotamus). However, saying chiasmi can come across as pretentious, so you'll want to do that rarely.

According to the OED, chiasmus made its first published appearance in English in 1871 when a British scholar named A. S. Wilkins wrote about an observation from Cicero:

"This is a good instance of the … figure called chiasmus … in which the order of words in the first clause is inverted in the second."

The word goes back to the ancient Greeks and their fascination with language and rhetoric. The "chi" comes from chi, the letter "X" in the Greek alphabet. The word itself comes from the Greek word khiasmos, meaning "crossing." Khiasmos, in turn, is derived from the Greek word khiazein, meaning "to mark with an X."

"To Mark With an X"

One of the most fascinating features of chiasmus is this "marking with an X" notion. Take Mae West's signature line, "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men." By laying out the two clauses parallel to each other, it's possible to draw two lines connecting the key words:

It's not the men in my life
X

it's the life in my men.

The lines intersect, creating an "X." This quote, and all the chiastic quotations you've seen so far on this site, can be "marked with an X." Here are two more examples:

Home is where the great are small
X

and the small are great

One should eat to live
X

not live to eat

If you're ever wondering whether a particular quote is chiastic, simply lay it out in this manner. If you can mark it with an X, it is. If you can't, it probably isn't.

The ABBA Method

One other interesting way to view chiastic quotes is the ABBA method. Let's go back to the Mae West quote. If you assign the letters A and B to the first appearance of the key words and A' and B' (read "A prime" and "B prime") to their second appearance, they follow what is referred to as an ABBA pattern:

A It's not the men
B in my life
B' it's the life
A' in my men

Here's how the other two quotes would be laid out:

A Home is where the great
B are small and
B' the small
A' are great


A One should eat to
B live, not
B' live
A' to eat

Chiasmus can be achieved by reversing more than two key words. This observation from the 18th century English writer, Charles Caleb Colton, is a good example:

"How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising
that past age which our fathers abused,
and as constantly abusing that present age,
which our children will praise."

Laid out schematically, it looks like this:

A How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising
B that past age
C which our fathers abused,
C' and as constantly abusing
B' that present age,
A' which our children will praise

Another good example comes from Genesis 9:6:

A Whoever sheds
B the blood
C of man
C' by man shall
B' his blood
A' be shed

Technically, it doesn't make any difference how many words are reversed. Some scholars believe that a chiastic structure can be found in much larger passages, including entire sections of the New Testament and other ancient sacred writings. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Here, I just wanted to show you how the order of words—any number of words—in the first part of an expression can be reversed in the second.

Reversing More Than Just Words

Chiasmus doesn't just involve the reversal of single words, as you've seen in the quotations so far. Chiasmus can also be achieved by reversing complete phrases, individual letters of words, sounds of words, and occasionally even numbers. Let's examine each of these chiastic variations.

Phrase Reversal. Below are two quotes in which phrases rather than single words are reversed (I'll highlight the key elements being reversed to make them more apparent):

"Lust is what makes you keep wanting to do it,
even when you have no desire to be with each other.
Love is what makes you keep wanting to be with each other,
even when you have no desire to do it."

— Judith Viorst

"Some have an idea that the reason we in this country
discard things so readily is because we have so much.
The facts are exactly opposite—the reason
we have so much is simply because we discard things so readily."

— Alfred P. Sloan

Letter Reversal. Chiasmus can also be achieved by reversing the individual letters of words, as in this anonymous saying, which I recall hearing decades ago:

"A magician is a person who pulls rabbits out of hats.
An experimental psychologist is a person who pulls habits out of rats."

Without question, though, the most impressive example of chiasmus by letter reversal comes from a poem called "Sylvan Spring" by Alfred Kohn. I haven't yet received formal permission to reprint the poem, but it includes seven distinct letter reversals, including these:

* "soggy grounds" gets transposed to "groggy sounds"
* "a doe and fawn" hide from "their foe at dawn."
* on a "dreary lake" is found a "leery drake"
* robins gathering "reed for nest" later have a "need for rest"

I'm trying to get permission to reprint this chiastic tour de force, which I originally found in Willard Espy's 1989 book, The Word's Gotten Out. I wanted to include the poem in my Never Let a Fool Kiss You book, but the publisher of Espy's book—Clarkson N. Potter—wanted to charge me a hundred and fifty bucks to reprint the poem (of course, I passed!). I'm trying again, hoping I can convince them to let me bring long-overdue acclaim to a fabulous poem. (By the way, I've also been unsuccessful in tracking down the author of the poem. If you can help me locate the mysterious Alfred Kohn, I'd be grateful.).

Sound Reversal. Because it allows for the reversal of sounds, chiasmus has a special appeal to wordsmiths and others interested in the playful use of language:

"I find Paul appealing
and Peale appalling."

— Adlai Stevenson

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me
Than a frontal lobotomy."

— Randy Hanzlick, title of song

And while we're on the subject of sounds, chiasmus especially lends itself to the reversal of homonyms:

"Why do we drive on a parkway
and park on a driveway?"

— Richard Lederer

"Here's champagne for our real friends
and real pain for our sham friends."

— Edwardian Toast
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

During my research, I discovered that the opening line of Coleridge's poem Xanadu—one of the most famous lines in the history of poetry—is an example of phonetic chiasmus. In the Collier's Encyclopedia entry on chiasmus, "In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan" is described as an example of chiasmus. I didn't see it at first, and wouldn't be surprised if you don't either. But as soon as I sounded it out, it became apparent. Let me lay it out schematically—and phonetically—for you:

In Xan-a-du
X

did Ku-bla-Khan


In Zann-uh-doo
X

did Koo-bluh-Kann

Number Reversal. Finally, chiasmus can achieve delightful results by simply reversing numbers:

"A lawyer starts life giving $500 worth of law for $5
and ends giving $5 worth for $500."

— Benjamin H. Brewster

"Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-year-old girl.
Walter has always wanted to go that way,
but he's going to settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old.

— Betsy Maxwell Cronkite, wife of Walter Cronkite.

Okay, let's review. Chiasmus—a reversal in the order of words in otherwise parallel expressions—can also be achieved by reversing phrases, letters of words, sounds, and numbers. There's one other fascinating variation on the chiastic theme. Let's take a look at it now .