ANTISTROPHE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Antistrophe

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noun

Antistrophe n.

In Greek choruses and dances, the returning of the chorus, exactly answering to a previous strophe or movement from right to left. Hence: The lines of this part of the choral song. "It was customary, on some occasions, to dance round the altars whilst they sang the sacred hymns, which consisted of three stanzas or parts; the first of which, called strophe, was sung in turning from east to west; the other, named antistrophe, in returning from west to east; then they stood before the altar, and sang the epode, which was the last part of the song."

(Rhet.)

(a)

The repetition of words in an inverse order; as, the master of the servant and the servant of the master.

(b)

The retort or turning of an adversary's plea against him.

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Etymology of 'Antistrophe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Antistrophe" Quotes from Famous Books

... put it. In the case of all my other friends I regarded myself as too much of an obvious nuisance, as it was, for me to work on their sympathy for infirmities that I could hide; but with Mrs. Boyce it was different. The more I chanted antistrophe to her strophe of lamentation the more was I welcome in her drawing-room. I had not seen her for some weeks. Perhaps I had been feeling remarkably well with nothing in the world to complain about, and therefore unequipped with a topic of conversation. However, hearty or not, ...

— The Red Planet • William J. Locke

... is the strange metrical structure. Evidently in a whim, and to suit his mock-heroic purpose, Milton chose a peculiar form of mixed verse, distantly suggested by the choruses of the Greek dramatists, and more closely by some precedents in Latin poetry. There are three Strophes, each followed by an Antistrophe, and the whole is wound up by a closing Epodos. In an appended prose note Milton calls attention to this novelty, and explains moreover that he had taken considerable liberties with the verse throughout, pleasing his own ear, and regarding rather the convenience of modern reading than ancient ...

— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... latter branch, touching impression, hath not been collected into art, but hath been handled dispersedly; and it hath the same relation or antistrophe that the former hath. For the consideration is double—either how and how far the humours and affects of the body do alter or work upon the mind, or, again, how and how far the passions or apprehensions of the mind do alter ...

— The Advancement of Learning • Francis Bacon

Words linked to "Antistrophe" : lyric, lyric poem, stanza