Chiasmus (ki-az’-mus): 1. Repetition of ideas in inverted order. 2. Repetition of grammatical structures in inverted order (not to be mistaken with antimetabole, in which identical words are repeated and inverted).
In morning the sea retreats. In the evening it attacks the shore. It destroys sandcastles, washes away the seashells, and winds around the pier’s pilings making them sway, showing their age and need of repair.
When I was a kid I watched a show called Diver Dan. He wore a diving suit and had fish friends and enemies who talked to Dan. But most important, there was a mermaid queen named Laura who he had a passionate love affair with unto hHe decided to move to the Galápagos Islands. How sad.
It taught me that I could like somebody who acted like ab A-1 bastard. Dan had to do what he had to do. I don’t remember why he moved, but I know it tore Laura the Mermaid to pieces. She almost combed into a lobster trap to die. But she didn’t because her anger outweighed her grief. She conspired with Baron Barracuda to cut Dan’s air hose and murder him. Baron demanded that Laura “be his girl” if he was going to help her cut Dan’s hose. She said she would think it over, but by the time she made up her mind, Dan was gone to the Galagos Islands where he planned to build an army of Blue-footed Boobies and invade the small fishing village of Salango and become its Mayor for Life. there was an archaeological dig there that gave him further motivation to invade. He would open a stand on the beach selling artifacts, including fake native bracelets made in Taiwan, and t-shirts saying “Kiss an Archeologist.” Dan was ambitious. Meanwhile, Laura was wasting away from a broken heart. She stopped eating and just sat on a rock looking sickly with scales coming off her tail. Yet, Dan was not taken in. He persisted in his plan and never came back.
Dan’s plan failed. His flotilla of Boobies was intercepted by the Ecuadoran navy and flew off to better places. They left Dan by himself about a half-mile off the coast bobbing on his Ski Doo, with the Boobie flag mounted on the stern. Dan revved up the Ski-Doo and head for Costa Rica, but he was too late. The naval vessel fired its deck-mounted fifty caliber machine gun at Dan and his Ski-Doo. Dan was hit in the head by a round and his decapitated body slipped into the sea in a circle of blood. The sharks soon arrived and ate the hapless Dan. Hundreds of the cowardly Blue-Boobies circled the carnage silently out of respect for their leader Dan. They were hypocrites.
Laura recovered her health. She met another diver—Diver Dave—and fell in love. Still, though, she would cry in her Boobie flag at night and pine for Dan who she hated and loved at the same time. When the Blue-footed Boobies recounted to their children what happened that day, they lied.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
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