L is for Legend.
A Royal Family offers a Golden-Heart.
A traitor plants a black decoy.
A line is drawn in the sand.
A prince destroys the black decoy.
A royal family offers a golden heart.
This five-line poem is a chiasmus. The first and last lines
mirror each other, the second and penultimate lines do the same and the middle
line is the symmetrical midpoint. The style of writing was popular in ancient
Hebrew and can be found in scriptural texts such as in the Holy Bible and the Book of
Mormon. JK Rowling wrote each Harry Potter novel using this style, also known as
a ring cycle. Mirrored events can be seen when comparing first and last
chapters within her books and so on, as well as comparing book one to book
seven, book two to book six, etc. What a fascinating mind to be able to think in
a reflective style and write this way!
My humble attempt at a chiasmus is displayed in my telling
of the ancient Legend of the Before-Time. In book one I introduce the first
five lines of the poem. In the following books the chiasm continues, telling
the tale of the Legend of the Kingdom of Forever in a way that only those with
Magic-Sense can understand. By the time readers are absorbed in the story, they’ll be fluent in chiasmus writing, and the fullness of the Legend will be
revealed.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading! Come back to visit soon!