Which sentence from the selection demonstrates parallelism? A) "To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unh
oly license; your national greatness, swelling vanity." Eliminate B) "Within the now-famous address is what historian Philip S. Foner has called 'probably the most moving passage in all of Douglass' speeches.'" C) "There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour." D) "On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall."
A) "To him, <u>your celebration is a sham</u>; <u>your boasted liberty, an unholy license</u>; <u>your national greatness, swelling vanity</u>." This sentence is an instance of parallellism. The same pattern is repeated- look at the underlined words-. Subject + to be + complement. However, this pattern is used in "your celebration is a sham". In the other two structures the verb to be has been omitted and a comma has been used,instead. " your boasted liberty, (is) an unholy license; your national greatness, (is) swelling vanity." The verb to be can be taken out since it can be easily retrieved from the context. If it is ellided, it should be replaced by a comma.
So, repetition is used in poems to show emphasis on a particular point. For your groupwork project you could possibly write a poem or a song and add repeated words to show you understand how to use repetition and when to use it.
