I find chiasmus to be a rather entertaining literary device.
The dictionary definition of chiasmus is given as:
Chiasmus : an inverted relationship between two syntactic elements of parallel phrases; where two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect.
An example would make more sense:
"He went to the country, to the town went she."
"To stop too fearful, and too faint to go."
"Never let a Fool kiss you or a Kiss fool you."
Notice that the second half of the statement is logically and gramatically the inversion of the first half. In the simplest sense, the term chiasmus applies to almost all “criss-cross” structures, and this is a concept that is common these days. In its strict classical sense, however, the function of chiasmus is to reverse grammatical structure or ideas of sentences, given that the same words and phrases are not repeated.
The use of chiasmus has been found more in ancient and classical literature, but it is certainly not a literary device to forget.
Another device that is closely related to chiasmus is antimetabole. An antimetabole is the repetition of words in consecutive clauses, but in an inverted or transposed order; a chiasmus does not necessarily have repeating words. You can say antimetabole is a subset of chiasmus. For example,
“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.”
is an antimetabole, while
“…in his face
Divine compassion visibly appeared,
Love without end, and without measure Grace…” (John Milton, Paradise Lost)
or
“His time a moment, and a point his space.” (Alexander Pope, Essay on Man)
is a chiasmus.
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