People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power. - Bill Clinton, Aug. 27, 2008
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961
Welcome to the symmetrical world of chiasmus. Chiasmus is defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms as "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."
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term 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 a good instance of the ... figure called chiasmus ... in which the order of the words in the first clause is inverted in the second."
The word (pronounced kye-AZ-muss) is named after the Greek letter chi (X), indicating a "criss-cross" arrangement of terms. One can literally mark many chiastic expressions with an X. Take one of Mae West's contributions to the genre:
It's not the men in my life
X
It's the life in my men
Certain chiastic statements, such as "All for one and one for all," and the shortened Cicero quote "Eat to live not live to eat," are word palindromes where the words, when repeated in reverse order read identically. In fact, the rhetorical elements of chiasmus are always rendered in palindromic order, usually of the "ABBA" schema but sometimes longer. This order can be seen in the above Mae West quote, in which the rhetorical order is men-life-life-men. In Genesis 9:6, we have a longer structure - "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed" - in which the pattern is ABCCBA.
Chiastic statements appear to reveal hidden truths and are thus popular in biblical writing: Aside from the Genesis 9:6 quote, other examples include "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18) and "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Mathew 19:30). According to The Literary Guide to the Bible, edited by Robert Alter and Frank Kermode, chiastic structure is built into biblical Hebrew.
The physicist Niels Bohr said: "There are trivial truths and great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true." Rhetorical devices are useful in exhibiting his point. Oxymoron is sometimes erroneously defined as a contradictory expression. A true oxymoron, such as Shakespeare's "sweet sorrow," or Milton's "darkness visible" is a rhetorical device, where the seeming contradiction involves a point. Chiastic transpositions can be similarly employed.
Take the French proverb: "Love makes time pass. Time makes love pass." The first line expresses a romantic notion; the second the less romantic notion that the ardour of love evanesces. Ernest Hemingway was fond of asking people which of these two statements they preferred: "Man can be destroyed but not defeated," or "Man can be defeated but not destroyed."
Chiasmus can also be employed as a form of wit. Humour is often created by establishing incongruity and chiasmus performs this function, especially with implied statements. Oscar Wilde was a master at this type of transposition. Some of his classics: "Work is the curse of the drinking class," "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life," and "The English have a miraculous power of turning wine into water."
Other implied chiastic quips include Ms. West's "A hard man is good to find" and "A waist is a terrible thing to mind," Groucho Marx's "Time wounds all heels," and amphibian philosopher Kermit the Frog's observation that "Time's fun when you're having flies." This type of transpositional humour can also be used in a defining matter. A hangover has been described as "the wrath of grapes" and a critic who provided harsh opening-night review was said to have "stoned the first cast."
The rhetorical elements need not even be whole words; parts will suffice. Two of my favourite examples of chiasmus are of this genre. There's Randy Hanzlick's lyric, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than have to have a frontal lobotomy," and an Edwardian toast that went, "Here's champagne for our real friends and real pain for our sham friends."
It's only appropriate that Bill Clinton should utter a great chiasmus, as he was the subject of one in a contest held some years ago by The Washington Post. In reference to the Monica Lewinsky debacle, here was the winning entry.
Bill Clinton before: "I don't know how I can make this any clearer."
Bill Clinton after: "I don't know how I can clear this with my Maker."
Howard Richler is a Montreal author whose latest book was Can I Have a Word With You?