Anaphora

Anaphora is a stylistic figure consisting in the repetition of identical sounds, words or syntactic constructions at the beginning of adjacent verse lines, stanzas or sentences. Anaphora heightens emotional tension, lends speech a rhythmic orderedness and emphasises the key word or motif that opens each segment of the text. Sound, lexical and syntactic anaphora are distinguished. This device is widely represented in folk song, prayer, oratorical speech and lyric, where the rhythmic repetition of openings creates an effect of accumulation, incantation or impassioned persuasion. The opposite figure is epiphora — the repetition of final elements. Anaphora is one of the most productive means of the expressive syntax of poetry.