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parallel structure

Structure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The use of repeated grammatical or structural patterns across lines in poetry

Detailed Definition
Parallel structure is the deliberate repetition of grammatical forms—such as clauses, phrases, or parts of speech—across lines or stanzas to create symmetry, emphasis, and rhythmic unity; foundational in both classical rhetoric and modern lyric poetry, it enhances clarity, emotional resonance, and the musicality of language through predictable yet artful patterning.
Example
Example in poetry:
The repetition of a grammatical pattern, phrase length, or metrical pattern in successive clauses, sentences, or lines; Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, which uses anaphora and parallel phrasing extensively; The successive use of "ing" verbs followed by a direct object, like "Running the race, / Winning the prize, / Feeling the joy"; The use of several comparative clauses with the same structure, like "As light as a feather, as fast as a hound."
Additional Notes
parallel structure: The repetition of the same pattern of words or phrases within a sentence or passage to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance; essential for rhythm and clarity (e.g., "I came, I saw, I conquered.").
Also Known As
syntactic parallelism balanced structure formal symmetry Parison paratactic phrase Parallelism
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