Tropes & Figures
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.
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Mirror figures of repetition differing by position. Anaphora repeats identical words or phrases at the BEGINNING of adjacent lines or sentences, building emotion from the opening. Epiphora repeats them at the END, creating a rhyme-like framing and focusing attention on the concluding word. Combining both (beginning + end) yields a more complex figure — symploce.
