Tricolon
A tricolon is a rhetorical figure consisting of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses arranged in succession, often with ascending force. The classical example is Caesar's 'veni, vidi, vici' (I came, I saw, I conquered). The three-part structure creates a sense of completeness and rhythmic inevitability, as the human ear expects a pattern of three to resolve.
Tricolon creates a sense of completion and emphasis through its three-part structure. The third element typically carries the greatest weight, arriving as the resolution the pattern has been building toward. The device gives a statement the quality of a settled truth rather than an opinion.
Appears in 2 songs
“I changed into goddesses, villains, and fools”
Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies this as a tricolon: 'this is a tricolum... a list of three in literature, a tricolon.' The three archetypal roles form a complete set covering extremes of human characterisation: the untouchable ideal (goddess), the rebellious or toxic figure (villain), and the blindly naive (fool). He also reads the list through a feminist lens, noting these are frequently roles assigned to women.
The tricolon compresses the speaker's frantic identity changes into three archetypal extremes, each one a role rather than a real self. The three-part structure gives the list a sense of completeness, as if every possible role has been tried and none of them fit.
“Of something good and right and real”
Uncle Jerry identifies 'good and right and real' as a tricolon: a three-part phrase that creates rhythm and emphasis. He compares it to the classical 'veni, vidi, vici' (I came, I saw, I conquered) as an example of the same rhetorical structure.
The tricolon gives the song's final definition of love a sense of completeness and inevitability. Three terms, each monosyllabic and plain, land with the weight of a conclusion that cannot be argued with.