What is Chiasmus? with examples

The inversion in the order of words or phrases when repeated.

Examples: .

 “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” -Keats “Ode on a Grecian Urn

 

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” - (Shakespeare: Macbeth)

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man know himself to be a fool.”- Shakespeare: As You Like It, Act V, Scene I

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit” - (Shakespeare: Twelfth Night,

Act I, Scene V

“Mankind’ must put an end to war or war will put an end mankind.”
- (J. F. Kennedy: Speech to UN General Assembly)

Chiasmus is used to make the meaning more impressive by witty effect.