Chiasmus in Paradise Lost

Question 1

What is Chiasmus

Answer 1

A phrase in which two terms or elements are repeated, with their order reversed the second time around.

Question 2

Chiasmus with word reversal

Answer 2

Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure (Byron, Don Juan)

Question 3

Chiasmus with reversal of structure

Answer 3

‘By day the frolic,and the dance by night’ (Johnson, Vanity of Human wishes’

Question 4

Cross Chiasmus

Answer 4

AB,BA
One side says what is true, the other what is false.
‘Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what you can do for your country’

Question 5

Mirror Chiasmus

Answer 5

2nd clause mirrors the first

‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’

Question 6

Circle Chiasmus

Answer 6

The thing described in the first clause has come around to cause the thing in the second clause
‘I wasted time, now time doth waste me’ Macbeth

Question 7

Spiral/ existential Chiasmus

Answer 7

Chiasmus is used to reach an existential conclusion

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ Keats

Question 8

What is mimetic Chiasmus?

Answer 8

Chiasmus that uses a lines structure to create effect

Question 9

Inversion Chiasmus

Answer 9

Mimetic
Invert a statement with the first pair of matching words at the very beginning and end, and the other pair in the middle.
‘Trees cut to statues, statues big as trees’ Pope

Question 10

Enclosure Chiasmus

Answer 10

Mimetic
Use words that mimic each other to encircle a phrase
‘Pest MID cloisters DIM’ Coleridge

Question 11

Enfolding Chiasmus

Answer 11

Mimetic
Chiastic pair encircles a clause
‘I cry thy sighs, my Deere, thy teares I bleede’ Sidney

Question 12

How is Paradise Lost Chiastic?

Answer 12

Structure is mirrored like so:
A) Satan’s sinful actions (Books 1-3) - SinB) Entry into Paradise (Book 4) - EntranceC) War in heaven (Books 5-6) - DestructionC) Creation of the world (Books 7-8) - CreationB) Loss of paradise (Book 9) - ExitA) Humankind’s sinful actions (Books 10-12) –Sin#