Anastrophe is a type of figure of speech where the usual order of words in a sentence is changed. Normally, a sentence follows the pattern of subject, verb, and object, such as "I like potatoes." Anastrophe rearranges these parts, for example, changing "I like potatoes" to "potatoes I like."

Anastrophe is related to a concept called antimetabole, but it only moves one word in a sentence. This rearrangement helps create a special effect in writing or speech.

Examples

Anastrophe moves a word or phrase from its usual place to highlight it. For example, the name of the City Beautiful urbanist movement focuses on the word "beautiful." Similarly, in the line "This is the forest primeval" from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline, the word "primeval" is emphasized.

If the emphasis from anastrophe is not needed, using a synonym inversion is acceptable.

Anastrophe is often used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. For instance, in the first line of the Aeneid, the genitive case noun "Troiæ" ("of Troy") is separated from the noun it modifies ("orīs," "shores"). This arrangement is unusual in Latin prose. Latin's flexible word order allows "of Troy" to modify other words, but it is not typically interpreted that way.

Anastrophe also appears in English poetry. In the third verse of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the phrase "his hand dropt he" uses a word order that is not common in English, even in archaic language styles. Overusing anastrophe for unnecessary emphasis, especially to fit rhyme or meter, is often seen as a weakness. This is evident in the clumsy writing of Sternhold and Hopkins's metrical psalter.

Some poets use anastrophe frequently in their work. Gerard Manley Hopkins is known for this technique, which makes his poetry easy to parody.

When anastrophe places an adverb at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis, the verb moves with it, creating a verb-subject inversion. In Robert Frost's "Mending Wall," the poem's opening line begins with an object noun, but this inversion does not happen. This creates tension that is addressed throughout the poem.

A well-known example of anastrophe in popular culture is Yoda from the Star Wars series. He says, "Powerful you have become, the dark side I sense in you."