Anastrophe | Definition & Examples

Anastrophe is a literary device, sometimes called “inversion,” where the word order in a sentence or phrase is reversed. It is done for emphasis, to maintain rhyme or meter in a poem, or for some other effect desired by the author.

Definition of anastrophe

Anastrophe comes from two Greek words, “ana” (which means “back”) and “strophe” (which means “turn”), from which we get the idea of inversion or reversal. The most common word order in English is subject-verb-object (e.g., “Dog bites man”).

Languages that use cases for nouns can use a wider range of word order. In English, if you change the word order, the meaning almost always changes. “Dog bites man” is completely the opposite to “man bites dog.” In highly inflected languages like Latin, or Czech and many other slavic languages, the word ending identifies its function in a sentence. So, for example, in Czech “pes kousne člověka,” means exactly the same as “člověka pes kousne” (“dog bites man”).

Examples of anastrophe

Anastrophe has a long history in English, and it often reflects a greater flexibility in past centuries in word order. This has the effect of making anastrophe sound “poetic” or perhaps a little affected. There are many examples from the canon of English literature.

John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1674), a mammoth work of more than 60,000 words, recounts the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. Its opening sentence makes the reader wait six lines before delivering first the verb (“sing”) and then the subject of the sentence (“Heav’nly Muse”).

Centuries later, Seamus Heaney uses anastrophe to create lines of beauty in their rhythm and meter in “Casualty.” Here we have object (“art”), subject (“his turned back”), then verb (“watches”).

In William Shakespeare’s Henry V, the king rouses his troops on the eve of Agincourt with a very famous speech. In it, there are many striking rhetorical flourishes, including this section where we find two examples of anastrophe. In both cases, the lines start with the subject of the clause (“This story” and “we”).

Frequently asked questions about anastrophe

What is the difference between hyperbaton and anastrophe?

According to some authorities, hyperbaton and anastrophe can be used interchangeably.

For those who consider them different, the hyperbaton will involve putting a word in a different place (e.g., “This, I must see”), and anastrophe involves more significant words like nouns and verbs (e.g., “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment”).

It is unlikely that there will be much argument whichever term you choose to use.

What is an example of anastrophe?

The traditional wedding vow “With all my worldly goods I thee endow” is an example of anastrophe—the changing of word order for emphasis or effect.

The standard word order of an English sentence is subject–verb–object (e.g., “I [subject] play [verb] the guitar [object]”). If you change the word order, then something else has to change for it to retain its meaning (e.g., “The guitar [object] is played by [compound verb in the passive voice] me [subject]”).

Anastrophe is often thought of as poetic, and it is found in older texts, and in more recent ones where the author is looking for a poetic feel to their writing. These include:

• “The road less-traveled,” rather than “The less-traveled road.”
• “Much have I seen and known,” rather than “I have seen and known much.”
• “Hallowed be thy name,” rather than, “Thy name be hallowed.”

Used carefully, anastrophe can be a very effective way of drawing attention to your meaning.