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 1 song
“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.