anaphora anaphora
 an-aph'-o-ra From Gk. ana “again” and phero “to bring or carry”
epanaphora, epembasis, epibole
adjectio, relatio, repetitio, repeticio
repeticion, the figure of report

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.
 
Examples
  This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as [a] moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings [. . .]
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas'd out — I die pronouncing it —
Like to a tenement or pelting farm.

—John of Gaunt in Shakespeare's Richard II (2.1.40-51; 57-60)

Related Figures
 
  • epistrophe
    Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words. The opposite of anaphora.
  • symploce
    The combination of anaphora and epistrophe.
  • Figures of repetition
 
  Sources: Ad Herennium 4.12.19 ("repetitio"); Quintilian 7.4.8 ("relatio"); Isidore 1.36.8-9 ("anaphora," "epanaphora"); Aquila 34 ("epanaphora"); Sherry (1550) 47 ("epanaphora," "repeticio," "repeticion"); Peacham (1577) H4v ("anaphora", "epanaphora"); Suarez ("repetitio" "anaphora" "epibole") 58v-69r; Fraunce (1588) 1.19; Putt. (1589) 208 ("anaphora," "the figure of report"); Day 1599 84 ("anaphora," "repetitio"); Hoskins (1599)13.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University
Please cite "Silva Rhetoricae" (rhetoric.byu.edu)


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