Chiasmus

When JFK, in his inaugural address, said:

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,"

he wasn’t just delivering one of the most famous presidential lines ever—he was also using a rhetorical device called chiasmus.

What is Chiasmus?

Chiasmus is the name for arranging words, phrases, or ideas in the structure A-B-B-A. The second half of the sentence mirrors the first half, flipping the order. The symmetry of thought of this rhetorical technique makes language more memorable, striking, and often more persuasive.

Chiasmus can involve just ideas, or the exact repetition of words (that special case is called antimetabole).

Famous Examples of Chiasmus

Chiasmus shows up again and again in political speeches, literature, music, and everyday expressions. Mark Forsyth, who is full of brilliant and entertaining examples, notes that few presidents and presidential candidates in recent memory have resisted the lure of chiasmus.

Here are some well-known presidential examples:

"You stood up for America; now America must stand up for you." — Barack Obama
"Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done." — George W Bush (Jr)
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." — JFK
"People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power." — Bill Clinton
"The difference between them and us is that we want to check government spending, and they want to spend government checks." — Ronald Reagan
"America did not invent human rights; human rights invented America." — Jimmy Carter
"In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president delivers, it's whether the president delivers on the speeches." — Hillary Clinton

Aside from presidential candidates, other examples include:

Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost. — Kahlil Gibran
All for one and one for all — the 3 Musketeers
Tea for two and two for tea, Me for you and you for me — the 1925 Musical, No, No Nanette
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going — Billy Ocean
With my mind on my money and my money on my mind — Snoop Dogg
What is a number that a man may know it, and a man that he may know a number? — Warren McCulloch
Good from far but far from good
I don't always say what I mean, but I always mean what I say.
Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you
I have never forgotten a print-out at the bottom of some stairs in UC Berkeley: "Take the stairs and add years to your life and life to your years."

Why is Chiasmus Effective?

I don't know if there is a scientific reason why chiasmus is appealing to us, but a few ideas come to mind.

It's rhythmic. The mirrored structure is naturally pleasing to the ear, as in Edward Lear's, "They went to sea in a Sieve, they did, In a Sieve they went to sea."

It's clever. Chiasmus surprises us by flipping words or ideas into a new sense, as in the use of the word "life" in Mae West's "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men."

It's easy to remember. If you can remember the first half, you can often reconstruct the second: A place for everything...and everything in its place.

Chiasmus vs Antimetabole

Chiasmus is about flipping ideas, as in:

The green of summer; an autumn of blue — Chiasmus (ideas inverted - colour, season, season, colour)

When the same words are repeated in reverse order, it's technically antimetabole, a special case of chiasmus, as in most of the examples here:

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind (JFK)— Chiasmus and antimetabole (mankind, end to war, war will end, mankind)

Have any fun chiasmus examples that you created or you've spotted? Submit a chiasmus or send it by email, and I'll add it to the list.

Why is it called Chiasmus?

Chiasmus is based on the Greek letter Chi (pronounced kai), which is an X. If the terms of the chiastic phrase A B B A are placed on top of each other, you get:

Which gives AA and BB in an X shape, just like Chi.

(I always ask my amazing aunt who taught classics for this kind of thing)

Related Ideas to Chiasmus

More techniques of rhetoric and curiosities of language:

Anadiplosis — Yoda!
Pleonasm — Unexpected surprises
Ordering adjectives — green great dragon?
Ablaut reduplication — hip-hop, zig-zag
RAS Syndrome — ATM machines
The Golden Circle — It was the "I have a dream" speech, not the "I have a plan" speech

Learn More

Mark Forsyth covers the chiasmus meaning and examples (and anadiplosis, pleonasm, adjective order, ablaut reduplication and others) in the entertaining The Elements of Eloquence.

You can also listen to and watch him recite examples in his TEDx Talk: How to Talk Yourself into the White House (12 min). He shares most of the examples included here.

Earlier versions of JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you..." exist, including from author and poet Khalil Gibran (also see Grow not in each other's shadow).