“Antithesis: (Greek: “Opposition”) Fundamentally, contrasting ideas sharpened by the use of opposite or noticeably different meanings. For example, Bacon’s apothegm (q.v.): ‘Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them.’
It is common in rhetoric (q.v.) and was particularly favored by the Augustan poets and users of the heroic couplet (q.v.). These lines from Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel are strongly antithetical:
‘Rais’d in extremes, and in extremes decry’d;
With Oaths affirm’d, with dying Vows deny’d.
Not weighed, or winnow’s by the Multitude;
But swallow’d in the Mass, unchew’d and Crude.
Some Truth there was, but dash’d and brew’d with Lyes;
To please the Fools, and puzzle all the Wise.
Succeeding times, did equal folly call,
Believing nothing, or believing all.’
Pope was an expert at the antithetical, as this compact example in his Moral Essays shows:
‘Less with than mimic, more a wit than wise.’
It is used frequently in prose to telling effect, as in this example from Dr. Johnson (in the London Chronicle, May 2nd, 1769) on the character of the Reverend Zachariah Mudge: ‘Though studious, he was popular; though argumentative, he was modest; though inflexible, he was candid; and though metaphysical, yet orthodox.’”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
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