Anaphora

Literarylanguagemediaculture

Etymology

From Greek anaphorá, "a carrying back, a bringing up again," from aná ("back, again") + phérein ("to carry"). The name captures the motion: each clause carries the reader back to the same opening words. Grammar borrows the same term for pronouns that point back to an earlier noun, but the rhetorical sense is this cumulative repetition.

  1. noun · /uh-NAF-er-uh/

    The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

    What it names

    The building drumbeat of "we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds" — repetition at the front that gathers force line by line.

    Example

    The speech leaned hard on anaphora — "Enough of the excuses. Enough of the delays. Enough of the broken promises."

    Related idea

    Epistrophe is the mirror figure, repeating the phrase at the end of each clause rather than the beginning.

See also

AnadiplosisAntimetaboleAsyndetonChiasmusEpistrophePolysyndeton