I is for Isocolon

I is for isocolon (i so CO lon), which is Greek for "of equal members or clauses." It's a relatively straightforward figure in terms of definition, but it contains many possibilities (like most figures) for overlapping figures. 

Isocolon is made of "phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure" (Lanham), or in other words "a series of similarly structured elements having the same length" (Silva Rhetoricae). Narrower classical definition of the terms called for the clauses to have equal syllables, but we play a little faster and looser with it now. 

There are excellent examples, and many are familiar.
Caesar, apparently, says: "Veni, vidi, vici." ("I came, I saw, I conquered")
Churchill, ever witty, says of politicians: "He is asked to stand, he wants to sit, and he is expected to lie."
Shakespeare extends the isocolon over a few lines in Love's Labor's Lost: "Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy.

The figure isocolon functions by operating on our cognitive affinity for parallelism, itself overlapping with rhythm and similarity. We're disposed to accept premises offered in parallel structure, and isocolon is one such structure (scheme) of language that takes advantage of that disposition. Fahnestock notes that isocolon "can create or reinforce argumentative units" through sequences of similar length, and these parallel units "cohere as a set." A common example I like to reference is the platitude "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." That's not a "true" statement in any measurable sense, but it's often taken as true, partly because of the seeming coherence it demonstrates through the parallel structure (a subordinate clause of 7 syllables sets up the final independent 6 syllable clause, and both clauses are based on Subject + Verb + Prepositional Phrase).

Taken from the interwebs.

Consider Churchill's statement again. It's not "true." We know of examples where the statement may hold true, but it's not "true." I sure seems true, though, and that is partly through the cohering and balancing power of the isocolon. 

Perhaps we'll revisit this in a latter post discussion Aristotle's illustration of how isocolon can make many actions seem like one or can make use of asyndeton to reverse that and present one action as many (the difference between "I came and I saw and I conquered" and "I came, I saw, I conquered"), but this is more than enough to think about for one Friday.

What about you? Any instances of isocolon you'd like to share with the rest of us?