Balance & Opposition
Isocolon
Phrases or clauses in a row with the same shape and nearly the same length. The equal weights make the sentence sound measured and deliberate: two parts suggest fairness, three suggest completeness.
"Veni, vidi, vici." — Julius Caesar
Don't confuse it with Parallelism. All isocolon is parallelism, but parallelism only requires matching structure, not matching *length and rhythm*.
In the Reader — 7 excerpts
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
below us. He killed not as he had been forced to by the last bull, but as he wanted to. He profiled directly in front of the bull, drew the sword out of the folds of the
moved, ants and ant lions to set traps for them, grasshoppers to jump into the air and flick their yellow wings for a second, sow bugs like little armadillos, plodding
nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of
Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with isocolon most often — company reveals character.
Asyndeton 9 Anaphora 9 Antithesis 7 Parataxis 5 Paradox 5 Polyptoton 5 Passive Voice 4 Litotes 4
The rest of the family
Antithesis Parallelism Chiasmus Antimetabole Juxtaposition Oxymoron Paradox