Anastrophe
A rhetorical figure that inverts normal word order for emphasis, formality, or characterisation.
Anastrophe is the inversion of ordinary word order in a sentence — placing an adjective after its noun, a verb before its subject, or an object before its verb. English is a strict word-order language, so any inversion carries weight; the small strangeness of the ordering is what makes the reader listen.
The most famous modern example belongs to a fictional character: Yoda's 'Powerful you have become; the dark side I sense in you' is nothing but anastrophe layered on anastrophe. Older English is full of it — 'thy sins be forgiven thee', 'to whom shall we go?' — which is why the King James Bible sounds the way it does even in modern ears.
Anastrophe is most useful in a single line intended to be remembered: an epitaph, a chapter title, a slogan. A whole paragraph of it becomes parody quickly. Use it once, on the sentence that must stick.
“Powerful you have become; the dark side I sense in you.”
Keep reading the glossary
An ABBA word-order reversal — 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'.
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.
Aristotle's three modes of persuasion — character, emotion, and reason.