Ode to a Keatsian Turn: Creating Meaningful and Poetic Instances of Rhetorical Forms - Computational Creativity Research: Towards Creative Machines - page 191

Nonetheless, just as good painters sometimes paint fakes, clever orators sometimes
abuse rhetoric, to suggest profundity where there is shallowness, and sincerity where
there is indifference.
One such rhetorical device is chiasmus, which takes its name from the cross-
shaped Greek letter chi, or ' '. The name is apt, for chiasmus is the crossover

repetition of words, meanings, images or syntactic structures in a text. It is a much-
used device in the texts of the Bible—it is used in both old and new testaments—and
in other ancient Hebrew and Greek texts. Indeed, one of the most widely-quoted
examples of chiasmus is also nicely self-descriptive: “ Those that are first shall be
last and those that are last shall be first ” (Matthew 19:30). Biblical uses of chiasmus
combine a profundity of thought with a symmetry of form, and the effectiveness of
this balancing act has not been lost on orators throughout the ages. Consider this
use of chiasmus by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, “ I
claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled
me ,” and this use by its 35th president, John F. Kennedy, “ Ask not what your country
can do for you, but what you can do for your country ”. JFK's use of chiasmus at
his inauguration in 1961 was both memorable and effective, allowing his words to
hold a mirror, structurally speaking, to what he saw as a much-needed shift from
selfishness to selflessness in modern times.
The crisscross pattern of chiasmus is the linguistic equivalent of a tightly-laced
boxing glove. When used effectively, with a substantial meaning to communicate,
the surface crossover of linguistic content implies a dove-tailing of ideas at a deeper
level. Chiasmus relies on repetition to drive home these ideas, though this duplication
of content is not always superficial or obvious. James Joyce, for example, employed
chiasmus to lend balance and symmetry to his use of imagery in Dubliners ,but
nowhere is his use of the form as structurally obvious as it is in either the Lincoln
or Kennedy examples. The explicit repetition of words is a hallmark of chiasmus, as
in this popular slogan of the American gun lobby, “ when guns are outlawed, only
outlaws will have guns ” (though even here, the verb “ to outlaw ” is repeated as a
noun). But one can implicitly repeat an idea in a chiastic crossover by referring
instead to its opposite counterpart, as in these wise words from the Dalai Lama: “ In
the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher ” (here “ practice ” aligns
with “ teacher ” while “ tolerance ” crosses over to “ enemy ”).
These are aphoristic uses of the form, in which the chiasmus is designed to be
noticed, just as the resulting epigrams and slogans are designed to be remembered.
Yet this repetition with crossover can be just as effective even when it is not overtly
noticed. Consider this use of chiasmus by the always quotable fashion-designer Karl
Lagerfeld: “ Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought
some sweatpants ”. If you feel the need to repeat yourself, as Lagerfeld does here
with withering contempt, then repetition with crossover may subtly strengthen the
logical force of your argument. Notice how Lagerfeld begins by asserting a causal
link from sweatpants to defeat , and quickly follows this generalization by asserting a
causal link in the opposite direction, from a loss of personal control (defeat again) to
the purchase of those very same sweatpants. His use of chiasmus suggests abductive
and deductive reasoning, and shows us the same causal link from complementary

χ