Parallelism
The positioning of similarly constructed clauses, sentences, or verse lines in a pairing or other succession suggesting a correspondence between them is called parallelism. It is usually a balanced arrangement achieved by reusing the same syntactic forms. This device is known as a parison or isocolon in classical rhetoric. The effect may be antithesis when the elements arranged in parallel are strongly opposed. In a more expanded sense, the term is applied to correspondences between more significant elements of dramatic or narrative works. For example, the relation of the subplot to the main plot in a play [Baldick, p. 183-184].
Parallelism is the principle of representing equal ideas in the same grammatical form. Parallelism creates a sense of balance and order and is frequently used as a feature of the periodic sentence [Quinn, p. 312].
Parallelism is a very widely used device in poetry and not uncommon in the more incantatory types of prose. It contains phrases or sentences of similar construction and meaning placed alongside, balancing each other. Parallelism is common in poetry of the oral tradition [Cuddon, p. 512].
⠀ Chris Baldick. (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
⠀ Cuddon J.A. (2013). A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
⠀ Quinn Edward. (2006). A dictionary of literary and thematic terms. New-York: Infobase Publishing.