Isocolon (pronounced ai-so-co-lon) is a rhetorical device that occurs when sentences, clauses, or phrases that are similar or parallel in length or structure are used in suggestion. It is a common literary device. It is not just seen as an ornamental literary device but is often seen as a requirement of good writing.
Isocolon is from the Greek term “of equal members.” In the original Greek, it was meant to describe rhythmic measure in poetry. Here is an example of Isocolon being used by the Greek poet Sappho:
“Who this time am I to persuade
to your love? Sappho, who is doing you wrong?
For even if she flees, soon she shall pursue.
And if she refuses gifts, soon she shall give them.
If she doesn’t love you, soon she shall love
even if she’s unwilling.”
This is Sappho recounting how the Goddess of love Aphrodite is promising to do her bidding and procure for her the love of someone else, as the Goddess has done on numerous previous occasions.
In the second stanza, the isocolon occurs three times and is called a tricolon. The introductory and dependent clauses of each one of the three sentences mirror each other.
In the case of Sappho, we could be tempted to think that the appeal to Aphrodite was simply a metaphor personifying Sappho's love in the form of the Goddess of love. However, around 600-500 BC in the time that Sappho lived and wrote there was no clear demarcation between religion, poetry, and magic.
Our other example makes this clear. It is also from Ancient Greek origins, but not as old as Sappho. It was from Hellenistic Greece based in Ancient Egypt. It is from the Greek Magical Papyri or Papyri Graecae Magicae (abbreviated to PGM) — a book that keeps a record of numerous magical spells.
In this particular case, an appeal is being made here to procure love, but it is much less poetic. It is an instance of practical magic as recorded in the Greek Magical Papyri (100 BCE 400 CE ).
This type of spell was called an agōgē — a fetching love spell. Here the spell crafter is appealing to the power of myrrh, which he burns as an incense, to summon his “unwilling lover” (PGM XXXVI. 333-60).
Myrrh, who serves at the side of gods, who stirs up rivers and mountains, who burns up the marsh of Achalda, who consumes with fire the godless Typhon . . . as you burn, so also will you burn her.
The tricolon has a cumulative effect, which climaxes with the spellcaster calling for the fiery effects of myrrh to be enacted on the “target.” We will provide more examples of isocolon in the rest of the article.
1. Making two or more claims about the same subject
Isocolon is commonly used to make parallel calims about the same subject. It could mean parts of speech being aligned with each other. Here is an example from Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1837):
He was a morose, savage-hearted, bad man: idle and dissolute in his habits; cruel and ferocious in his disposition.
The first part of the sentence has a triple isocolon on the three adjectives — morose, savage-hearted, and bad. The second part of the sentence after the colon is a double isocolon pairing the double adjectives “idle and dissolute” with “cruel and ferocious” and “habits” with “disposition.”
A famous modern example of isocolon making two or more claims about the same subject is from John Kennedy’s inaugural address (1961):
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
An older and somewhat humorous example of it is with Balfour’s speech at St. Andrews University (1887) targeting the famous 18th century poet Alexander Pope:
That “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” is a saying which has now got currency as a proverb stamped in the mint of Pope’s versification — of Pope who, with the most imperfect knowledge of Greek, translated Homer; with the most imperfect knowledge of the Elizabethan drama, edited Shakespeare; and with the most imperfect knowledge of philosophy, wrote the “Essay on Man.”
The isocolon here does a great job of proving the maxim “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” by attacking (fairly or not) Alexander Pope’s entire literary career by choosing three of his major literary contributions.
2. Making parallel claims about different subjects
Apart from making similar claims about the same subject, the exact opposite can be done with isocolon—namely making parallel calims about different subjects.
Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World (1910) provides a good example of this.
. . . in everything worth having, even in every pleasure, there is a point of pain or tedium that must be survived, so that the pleasure may revive and endure. The joy of battle comes after the first fear of death; the joy of reading Virgil comes after the bore of learning him; the glow of the sea–bather comes after the icy shock of the sea bath; and the success of the marriage comes after the failure of the honeymoon.
Here, he describes the importance of steadfastness in monogamous marriage by explaining that tedium should be toolerated to attain the pleasure on the other side of it.
3. Making parallel claims about opposing elements: Antithesis
Antithesis refers to juxtaposing contrasting elements alongside each other in a parallel manner. It can exist on its own as a rhetorical device; however, it can be combined with isocolon for great effect.
Charles Dickens is well-known for using this device. Here is an example of it from
The mother looked young, and the daughter looked old; the mother’s complexion was pink, and the daughter’s was yellow; the mother set up for frivolity, and the daughter for theology.
The earlier example from Sappho is also a good example of this effect:
For even if she flees, soon she shall pursue.
And if she refuses gifts, soon she shall give them.
If she doesn’t love you, soon she shall love
even if she’s unwilling.
There are many other examples of isocolon. As mentioned earlier, isocolon was originally meant to describe poetic forms or devices in Ancient Greek verse.
Isocolon in verse
A good example of isocolon would be William Blake’s “The Tyger.”
What the hammer? What the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
The isocolon here is complete in terms of both structure and even the number of stressed syllables. Blake makes use of a trochaic meter, that is, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.
He does so for each couplet or two lines that make up the four-line stanza. So teh isocolon is complete in terms of structure, number of syllables, and number of stresses.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, September 13). Isocolon. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/isocolon |
Comments