Anaphora
Encyclopedia
In rhetoric
, an Anaphora is a rhetorical device
that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis
. In contrast, an epistrophe
(or epiphora) is repeating words at the clauses' ends. Anaphora is contrasted with cataphora. See also other figures of speech involving repetition
.
One author well-known for his use of anaphora is Charles Dickens
(seen in quotation below). Some of his best-known works constantly portray their themes through use of this literary tool.
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, an Anaphora is a rhetorical device
Rhetorical device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device or resource of language is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective. While rhetorical devices may be used to evoke an...
that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis
Emphasis
Emphasis or emphatic may refer to:* Emphasis , intentional alteration of the amplitude-vs.-frequency characteristics of the signal to reduce adverse effects of noise...
. In contrast, an epistrophe
Epistrophe
Epistrophe , also known as epiphora , is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences...
(or epiphora) is repeating words at the clauses' ends. Anaphora is contrasted with cataphora. See also other figures of speech involving repetition
Repetition (rhetorical device)
Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to emphasize. This is such a common literary device that it is almost never even noted as a figure of speech...
.
One author well-known for his use of anaphora is Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
(seen in quotation below). Some of his best-known works constantly portray their themes through use of this literary tool.
Examples
- In time the savage bull sustains the yoke,
- In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure,
- In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak,
- In time the flint is pierced with softest shower.
- — Thomas KydThomas KydThomas Kyd was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama....
, The Spanish TragedyThe Spanish TragedyThe Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent...
, I, vi. 3
- — Thomas Kyd
- Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!
- — William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
,
- — William Shakespeare
- What the hammer? what the chain?
- In what furnace was thy brain?
- What the anvil? what dread grasp
- Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
- — William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, The TygerThe Tyger"The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794 . It is one of Blake's best-known and most analyzed poems...
- — William Blake
- In every cry of every man,
- In every infant's cry of fear,
- In every voice, in every ban,
- The mind-forged manacles I hear:
- — William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, LondonLondon (poem)London is a poem by William Blake, published in Songs of Experience in 1794. It is one of the few poems in Songs of Experience which does not have a corresponding poem in Songs of Innocence.-Analysis:...
- — William Blake
- Strike as I struck the foe! Strike as I would
- Have struck those tyrants! Strike deep as my curse!
- Strike!—and but once!
- — Byron, Marino Faliero
- With malice toward none;
- with charity for all;
- with firmness in the right,...
- — Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, Second Inaugural Address
- — Abraham Lincoln
- Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
- Out of the mock-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
- Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
- Over the sterile sands, and the fields beyond, where the child, leaving his bed, wander'd alone, bare-headed, barefoot,
- Down from the shower'd halo,
- Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
- Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
- From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
- From your memories, sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
- From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
- From those beginning notes of yearning and love, there in the transparent mist,
- From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,
- From the myriad thence-arous'd words,
- From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
- From such as now they start the scene revisiting,...
- — Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
, Out of the Cradle Endlessly RockingOut of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is a poem by Walt Whitman, published in Whitman's Leaves of Grass collection. "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is found in the title section, Sea-Drift. It was originally called 'A child's Reminiscence' and was published individually by the New York...
- — Walt Whitman
- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
- — Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
- — Charles Dickens
- Five years have passed;
- Five summers, with the length of
- Five long winters! and again I hear these waters...
- — William WordsworthWilliam WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
, Tintern Abbey (poem)Tintern Abbey (poem)"Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, 13 July 1798" is a poem by William Wordsworth. Tintern Abbey is an abbey abandoned in 1536 and located in the southern Welsh county of Monmouthshire...
- — William Wordsworth
- I fled Him down the nights and down the days;
- I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
- I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
- Of my own mind...
- — Francis ThompsonFrancis ThompsonFrancis Thompson was an English poet and ascetic. After attending college, he moved to London to become a writer, but in menial work, became addicted to opium, and was a street vagrant for years. A married couple read his poetry and rescued him, publishing his first book, Poems in 1893...
, The Hound of HeavenHound of HeavenThe Hound of Heaven is a 182 line poem written by English poet Francis Thompson. The poem became famous and was the source of much of Thompson's posthumous reputation. The poem was first published in Thompson's first volume of poems in 1893. It was included in the Oxford Book of English Mystical...
- — Francis Thompson
- We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beachesWe shall fight on the beachesWe Shall Fight on the Beaches is a common title given to a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 4th June 1940...
, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.- — Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
- — Winston Churchill
- Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.
- — Elie WieselElie WieselSir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, NightNight (book)Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father, Shlomo, in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War...
- — Elie Wiesel
- segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever...
- — George WallaceGeorge WallaceGeorge Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
- — George Wallace
- Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dreamI Have a Dream"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.- — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.