Parallelism

Isocolon

to use similar structures in a pair or string of phrases or clauses; from the Greek parallelos, meaning 'side-by-side'

to use parallel structures that also have equal length, structure or symmetry; from the Greek isos 'equal' and kolon 'member'

Examples

Parallelism

Proverb
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

P.G. Wodehouse
I plied him with rich foods and spirited wines.

Dictionaries present word meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, definitions and usages.

Shakespeare
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

George Orwell
Some of the people said that the elephant had gone in one direction, some said that he had gone in another, some professed not even to have heard of any elephant.

Isocolon

Easy come, easy go

Variously Attributed
Never complain, never explain.

We were told to sleep soundly, rise early and breakfast heartily.

Harley Davidson
American by Birth. Rebel by Choice.

Winston Churchill
Come then: let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil - each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honor the brave.

Folk Saying
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
​
Dale Carnegie
Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

Benjamin Franklin
They that give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Clive James
There was a song Johnny Cash sang near the end of his life that I now listen to often, near the end of mine.

P.G. Wodehouse
There were a hundred letters he should have been dictating to Millicent Rigby, his secretary, but Millicent remained in the outer office, undictated to. There were a dozen editors with whom he should have been conferring, but they stayed where they were, unconferred with.

Purpose

Rhythm, Balance & Logic

Parallelism is a principle of grammatical and rhetorical composition. We use it to demonstrate orderly thinking and to present pretty patterns:

• Grammatically, parallelism produces semantically equivalent structures of orderly thinking.
• Rhetorically, parallelism produces rhythmically equivalent structures of order and balance.

Parallelism can enumerate lists of items and combine with other figures of similarity and repetition like antithesis and chiasmus and asyndeton and polysndeton.

Isocolon is a more perfect form of parallelism containing units with equivalent grammatical structures and/or numbers of words or syllables.

Usage

Richard Lanham
Rhythmless, unemphatic prose always indicates that something has gone wrong.

Parallelism is taught in grammar, rhetoric and composition courses. It is also cognitively important because parallelism creates symmetries and repetition. These enhance comprehension because the human brain looks for patterns; and patterns may enhance recall because the brain more easily retains repeated and rhythmic input.

Parallelism appears commonly in everyday discourse, professional communications and literature. Politicians may exploit it in the debate chamber, and lawyers in the courtroom, because it synthesizes the logical consistency of balanced structures with the rhetorical appeal of rhythm and musicality.

Parallelism & Difference

Use parallelism to emphasize relationships between congruous or incongruous elements. Parallelism also combines well with other figures of similarity and difference.

Proverb

War is won by weapons. Peace is won by ideas.
(also contains antithesis)

Blaise Pascal

We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty. We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or happiness.

(also contains anaphora and epistrophe and antithesis)

Charles Dickens

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

(also contains anaphora and epistrophe, antithesis, metaphor and euphemism)

Parallelism Combined

If parallelism were a spice it would be the salt. More exotic spices there are, but are there any dishes without salt? Parallelism seasons prose and leavens other figures to produce sophisticated effects.

Parallelism with Alliteration and Tricolon

Holiday Ad.
Sun, sea and sex

Parallelism with Antithesis

Winston Churchill
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries

This slogan would be much less effective without:

1. tricolon: sun, sea, sex, summer(?) and sport(?)
2. isocolon: sun, sea and holiday romance(?)
3. alliteration: sun, ocean(?) and sex

This statement would be much less effective without:

1. parallelism: The inherent vice of capitalism is [...]; socialism is not virtuous because(?)
2. antithesis: The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the unequal(?) sharing of miseries
   

Good communicators know how to combine complimentary figures of speech effectively. Parallelism combines well and lends a pleasing symmetry to utterances.

Faulty Parallelism

Faulty parallelism happens when equivalent structures are not used. Compare the following:

Faulty Parallelism

Martin Lee

Correct Parallelism

Martin Lee (improved)

I see hope in him (the Chinese president) and if I'm right then the whole world will applaud. If I'm wrong then that is going to be terrible.

I see hope in him (the Chinese president) and if I'm right then the whole world will applaud. If I'm wrong then the whole world will despair.

Lay out parallel structures in parallel lines. Faulty parallelism is not grammatically incorrect. But it shows stylistic inconsistency and disorderly thought. Use coordinate elements: nouns with nouns, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, etc. See further examples.