Synchysis
Encyclopedia
Synchysis is an interlocked word order, in the form A-B-A-B; which often display change and difference. This poetry form was a favorite with Latin poets. They are often employed to demonstrate such change within the event in which they are situated; on occasion, there are synchyses within a poem which were not intended but happened to be written in such a way.
A synchysis may be opposed to chiasmus
, which is in the form A-B-B-A.
A line of Latin verse in the form adjective A - adjective B - verb - noun A - noun B, with the verb in the center (or a corresponding chiastic line, again with the verb in the center), is known as a golden line
. An example of this is aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem, "a golden clasp bound her purple cloak" (Virgil
, Aeneid
4.139): the line translates word-by-word as "golden purple bound clasp cloak" (endings on the Latin words indicate their syntactical relationship, where in English word order would do the same job).
"I run and shoot, fast and accurate."
"Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear" --Alexander Pope
, "Epistle II. To a Lady" (1743)
A synchysis may be opposed to chiasmus
Chiasmus
In rhetoric, chiasmus is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism...
, which is in the form A-B-B-A.
A line of Latin verse in the form adjective A - adjective B - verb - noun A - noun B, with the verb in the center (or a corresponding chiastic line, again with the verb in the center), is known as a golden line
Golden line
The golden line is a type of Latin dactylic hexameter frequently mentioned in Latin classrooms in English speaking countries and in contemporary scholarship written in English.-Definition:...
. An example of this is aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem, "a golden clasp bound her purple cloak" (Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
4.139): the line translates word-by-word as "golden purple bound clasp cloak" (endings on the Latin words indicate their syntactical relationship, where in English word order would do the same job).
More examples
"Abraham George Lincoln Washington""I run and shoot, fast and accurate."
"Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear" --Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, "Epistle II. To a Lady" (1743)