Parallelism Examples: Figures of Speech For Students

Parallelism Examples: Parallelism is a rhetorical device that employs back-to-back verbal constructions in prose or poetry that corresponds in sound, structure, meter, meaning, etc. Besides adding certain symmetry to your writing, parallelism helps accentuate the main ideas and adds force to your expression. In poetry, it encompasses the arrangement of synchronized thoughts and feelings to the effect that the correlation between them is commendably emphasized and the meaning becomes more prominent. The writers, on the other hand, use this rhetorical device to produce sentences in an effective manner, especially when they want to go beyond the obvious, put their thoughts in an appealing way, and present their sentences in different style, rhythm and intensity. To put it in other words, parallelism is a tool that is used to add lyrical flow to verse or prose as well as to exhibit the similarity in a sentence or word by means of repetition or comparison. Go through the extensive list of parallelism examples presented below to get a detailed idea about this linguistic term.

Examples Of Parallelism

• Jack hopes to visit his parents and see his old friends when he goes home.
• She advised me to find some new friends and forget about the event.
• This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted Mercedes.
• I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door.
• She said that she was having fun but not that she was meeting people.
• Peter felt that he had made an excellent deal and that he had bought a masterpiece.
• He enjoys playing tennis and working out.
• They don’t mind waiting and talking while you get ready.
• Quickly and happily, he walked around the corner to buy the book.
• Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness.
• He found it difficult to vote for an ideal truth but against his own self-interest.
• Tom and Patrick will probably arrive in less than an hour and in time for the meeting.
• They want more time off in the summer and on weekends.
• The pilot walked down the aisle, through the door, and into the cockpit, singing “Up, Up, and Away.”
• He left the engine on, idling erratically and heating rapidly.
• To think accurately and to write precisely are interrelated goals.
• Our neighbors have moved and have sold their house.
• My brother walks or rides his bike to work.
• The class is not only fun but also helpful.
• As he didn’t understand and because he refused to try, they let him go.
• Since it was easy to use and because it was cheap, it sold very well.
• Alice is not only strong but also fast.
• She liked sneaking up to Ted and putting the ice cream down his back, because he was so cool about it.
• He ran up to the bookshelves, grabbed a chair standing nearby, stepped painfully on his tiptoes, and pulled the fifty-pound volume on top of him, crushing his ribs and impressing him with the power of knowledge.
• The children love their teacher and the teachers love their children.
• Sam drives quickly and aggressively.
• They work carefully and effectively.
• I am lost in a sea of trouble; yet, in this sea a treasure I’ve found.
• Each morning we sing, each morning we dance, and each morning we pray.
• Michael eats fish and chicken.
• Having fun is as important as working hard.
• As soon as I arrive home, I put on my shoes and go for a run.
• Before she leaves for work, she usually eats breakfast and has a cup of coffee.
• She advised me to get some sleep and take some time off work.
• Hannah writes poetry and short stories.
• Singing a song or writing a poem is joyous.
• She tried to make her pastry fluffy, sweet, and delicate.
• He tried to make the law clear, precise and equitable.
• Work is as necessary as play.
• Apples are as good for you as oranges.
• The birds are in their nest and in their nests, they sing.

Examples of Parallelism in Psalms, a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible

• For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. – Psalm 37: 2
• But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped. – Psalm 73:2
• Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them [as] a garment. – Psalm 73:6

Other Examples of Parallelism

• “I shall never envy the honors which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardor to virtue, and confidence to truth.” By Samuel Johnson
• “They had great skill in optics, and had instructed him to see faults in others, and beauties in himself that could be discovered by nobody else. . .” By Alexander Pope
• “For the end of a theoretical science is truth, but the end of a practical science is performance.” By Aristotle
• “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
• I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
• I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
• I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
• I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Parallelism is a significant figure of speech. To illustrate this, consider this example – “People exercise because they want to look healthy, because they need to increase stamina, or because they hope to live longer.” In the above example, ‘because they’ is parallel in structure and similar in importance to ‘people’. Hope this list of examples help you understand the concept of parallelism in a better way.