Rhetoric Butler

      Wonder what all those funny terms we nerdy English types use when we're talking about aspects, dimensions and constructions of language, like antimetabole and sententia and expletive? (The last, for the record, does not refer solely to swearing, even if swear words are usually interruptive rather than central.) Well (he says expleting), look no further. This is a handy little resource, especially for those of us that are getting forgetful in our old age. My former students from last year's Shakespeare class will no doubt look at this page and shudder. Oddly enough, the most famous example of chiasmus in the English language isn't mentioned in relation to the term. The example? James Joyce's Pull out his eyes, / Apologise, / Apologise, / Pull out his eyes from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which pops to mind, in part, because today is the 64th anniversary of Joyce's death.