Definition and Examples of Isocolons in Rhetoric

Isocolon  is a  rhetorical term  for a succession of  phrases,  clauses, or  sentences  of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. Plural:  isocolons  or  isocola. An isocolon with three parallel members is known as a  tricolon. A four-part isocolon is a  tetracolon climax. Isocolon is particularly of interest, notes T.V.F. Brogan, because Aristotle mentions it in the  Rhetoric  as the  figure  that produces symmetry and balance in  speech  and, thus, creates  rhythmical  prose  or even measures in verse (Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 2012). Pronunciation   ai-so-CO-lon Etymology From the Greek, of equal members or clauses Examples and Observations Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.​It takes a licking, but it keeps on ticking!(advertising slogan of Timex watches)Im a Pepper, hes a Pepper, shes a Pepper, were a Pepper--Wouldnt you like to be a Pepper, too? Dr. Pepper!(advertising jingle for Dr. Pepper soft drink)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, plow the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succor the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honor the brave.(Winston Churchill, speech given in Manchester, England, on January 29, 1940)Nothing thats beautiful hides its face. Nothing thats honest hides its name.(Orual in  Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold  by C.S. Lewis. Geoffrey Bles, 1956)Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the sufferer. Terror is the fee ling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause.(James Joyce,  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1917)An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.(G.K. Chesterton) Effects Created by Isocolon Isocolon... one of the most common and important rhetorical  figures, is the use of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases similar in length and parallel in structure. . . . In some cases of isocolon the structural match may be so complete that the number of  syllables  in each phrase is the same; in the more common case, the parallel clauses just use the same  parts of speech  in the same order. The device can produce pleasing  rhythyms, and the parallel structures it creates may helpfully reinforce a parallel substance in the speakers  claims... An excessive or clumsy use of the device can create too glaring a finish and too strong a sense of calculation.(Ward Farnsworth,  Farnsworths Classical English Rhetoric. David R. Godine, 2011) The Isocolon Habit Historians of  rhetoric  continually puzzle over why the  isocolon  habit so thrilled the Greeks when they first encountered it, why  antithesis  became, for a while, an  oratorical  obsession. Perhaps it allowed them, for the first time, to see their two-sided  arguments.(Richard A. Lanham,  Analyzing Prose, 2nd ed. Continuum, 2003) The Difference Between Isocolon and Parison - Isocolon  is a sequence of  sentences  of equal length, as in Popes Equal your merits! equal is your din! (Dunciad  II, 244), where each sentence is assigned five syllables, iconizing the concept of equal distribution... Parison, also called  membrum, is a sequence of  clauses or phrases  of equal length.(Earl R. Anderson,  A Grammar of Iconism. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1998) - The Tudor  rhetoricians  do not make the distinction between  isocolon  and  parison...The definitions of  parison  by Puttenham and Day make it identical with isocolon. The figure was in great favor among the Elizabethans as is seen from its schematic use not only in  Euphues  but in the work of Lylys imitators.(Sister Miriam Joseph,  Shakespeares Use of the Arts of Language. Columbia Univ. Press, 1947)