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I've been listening to some music and I ran into this line of lyrics in a song:

Mirror mirror
On the wall
Show me the truth:
Of them all
Which one am I?

I kind of get the meaning of the phrase, but somehow it seems gramatically weird. Could anybody please explain to me why this phrase is correct? Or incorrect? Thanking you!:)

Hot Licks
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Svitlana Varava
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    "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?". See Snow White – Thomas Francois Jun 28 '16 at 10:01
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    As Svitlana mentions grammatical weirdness, my guess is that she is puzzled with the order of words in "Of them all Which one am I?", kind of Mr.Yoda's talk :) The answer would be - this is definitely weird for a normal speech but is perfectly allowed (and widely used) in poetry & songs' lyrics. – tum_ Jun 28 '16 at 10:53
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    Yep, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall" is a well-known idiom/catch-phrase, from the fairy tale Snow White. – Hot Licks Jun 28 '16 at 12:08
  • Thank you everybody! I think I was indeed puzzled by Mr Yoda's talk; you resolved my doubts :D And by the way: I'm new to this site, and I'm so glad to see how nice and polite everyone is! Thank you for being this way! – Svitlana Varava Jun 28 '16 at 15:49
  • I seem to remember that at the time when I studied English grammar a construct like this was called the emphatic inversion.. Just checked and indeed Google mentions such a term. From the same cartoon: "Snow White And The 7 Dwarfs:
    Hi Ho Hi Ho , Its Off To Work We Go!! We did dig dig dig dig dig dig dig
    In our Mine the whole day through
    To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig dig ....
    " :))     – tum_ Jun 28 '16 at 16:20

1 Answers1

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The speaker is addressing the mirror, by name: in Snow White, where this originates, the mirror is magic and can talk.

It really should have some extra punctuation, eg "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, show me the truth...".

It's like saying "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" which is a nursery rhyme, or "Tom, Tom, my old pal, fancy a beer?" (which isn't).

Max Williams
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