What is the rhetorical sentence pattern of the sentence, "Facts are to the scientist what words are for the poet."? I really think it's periodic, but if it's not, can I please have an explanation as to why?
Why I think it's periodic:
My understanding is that the noun, "what words are for the poet" is how facts occur to the scientist. To explain further, given my view of the semantics of the sentence, a rephrased sentence would be: To the scientist, facts are what words are for the poet. The definition of a periodic sentence is that the main point is at the end.
My argument is that it is not a balance sentence.
Best Answer
The general term is analogy.
The A : B :: C : D format is known as the Aristotelian format:
From Wikipedia:
lovanda at Wordreference.com adds:
There is a subtlety involved here in that the 'to' in 'facts are to the scientist' carries increased semantic weight. Beyond the 'relates to' sense (eg of 50 : 100) is the 'are, in the arsenal ...' sense (ie 'facts are the bread and butter of the scientist').