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Antimetabole is a figure of speech where the same words are used in two independent clauses but in reverse order. It can shift the emphasis or meaning of the first clause, as seen in JFK’s famous quote. Antimetabole can be found in literature, speeches, and even commercials.
Antimetabole is a figure of speech, used in written works, speeches, poems and advertisements. It’s a form of chiasmus, and the word comes from the Latin anti, meaning “against” or “opposite,” and metabole, which translates to “to turn around” or “about.” In antimetabole, a person uses the same words in two independent clauses but in reverse or modified order. The second clause shifts the emphasis or meaning of the first clause, by reversing the words.
Often in antimetabole, the direct object of the subject is reversed. It becomes the subject of the next clause. The most famous antimetabolo in modern parlance is that of John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
From a grammatical sense, the direct object “for you” in the first sentence becomes the subject “you” in the second. The subject “your country” in the first sentence becomes the direct object “for your country” in the second clause. As you can also see from this example, the emphasis in the second sentence causes a person not to ask what he will get but to ask what he can give. The emphasis is on the second clause, and you can even hear it in the spoken speech, which has been recorded. Its effect has been to focus attention on the contribution Americans could make to their world.
Sometimes an antimetabole doesn’t necessarily change meaning. From Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who quote, “I meant what I said and I said what I meant,” is an antimetabole that doesn’t actually alter the meaning. Emphasis placed on both clauses as Horton assures his listener that he is “100% faithful.”
Political speeches remain one of the most frequent sources from which we draw antimetabolic examples. Winston Churchill used them often. The next two antimetabolic quotes are from him: “We preach what we practice, we practice what we preach.”
“It’s not even the beginning of the end, but maybe it’s the end of the beginning.”
President Ronald Reagan, the great communicator, often used the antimetabole, as in this example: “East and West don’t trust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we distrust each other.’
In Jesse Jackson’s Democratic Convention speech in 1984, he offers this antimetabole: “But just because you were born in the slum doesn’t mean the slum was born in you.”
An antimetabole may also imply humor as it does in the quote attributed to Samuel Johnson in Boswell’s Life of Johnson: “This man I thought was a Lord among wits, but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords.”
You can also find the antimetabolo in commercials, like in this upcoming commercial for Starkist Tuna: “Starkist doesn’t want tasteful tuna. He wants tuna that tastes good.” .
In literature, the antimetabole can take on a high-pitched, meaningful tone. Shakespeare’s lines from Twelfth Night are an excellent example: “Virtue transgressed is but patched up with sin,
And the sin that makes amends is only patched up with virtue.”
Being aware of the many examples of antimetabolos around you can enhance your enjoyment of the different rhetorical vices we commonly employ. It’s also an impressive word to know, simply because so many people are unaware that this reverse repetition is actually a definite form of speech.
