Parallelism, in rhetoric, component of literary style in both prose and poetry, in which coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording. The repetition of sounds, meanings, and structures serves to order, emphasize, and point out relations. In its simplest form parallelism consists of single words that have a slight variation in meaning: “ordain and establish” or “overtake and surpass.” Sometimes three or more units are parallel; for example, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man” (Francis Bacon, “Of Studies”). Parallelism may be inverted for stronger emphasis; e.g., “I have changed in many things: in this I have not” (John Henry Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua, 1864). Parallelism lends wit and authority to the antithetical aphorism; e.g., “We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire” (La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1665).
Parallelism is a prominent figure in Hebrew poetry as well as in most literatures of the ancient Middle East. The Old Testament and New Testament, reflecting the influence of Hebrew poetry, contain many striking examples of parallelism, as in the following lines from the Psalms: “but they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues” (Psalms 78:36); “we will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord” (78:4).