Balance & Opposition
Antimetabole
Repeating the same words in reverse order: A-B, then B-A. The mirror shape suggests the speaker has examined the idea from both directions. The most quotable form of chiasmus.
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
Don't confuse it with Chiasmus. Every antimetabole is a chiasmus, but chiasmus can invert structure or sense without repeating the exact words.
In the Reader — 3 excerpts
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
costliness and splendor with those of the great European capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy.
124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with antimetabole most often — company reveals character.
Polysyndeton 5 Anaphora 5 Antithesis 4 Litotes 4 Asyndeton 3 Allusion 3 Parenthesis 3
The rest of the family
Antithesis Parallelism Isocolon Chiasmus Juxtaposition Oxymoron Paradox