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Anaphora

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginnings of successive lines or clauses.

Explore this topic in depth (4)

Repetition in Poetry — Repetition is one of poetry’s most flexible ways of making language memorable. It can establish a beat, return us to an idea, sharpen an argument or make the same words mean differently each time they come back.

The Sestina — A sestina is built from six end-words that return in a changing order across six stanzas and a brief closing envoi. Its pattern can look daunting on paper, but it is best understood as an audible cycle: familiar words arriving in new emotional and grammatical surroundings.

Villanelle — A villanelle is a tightly patterned poem built from two alternating refrain lines, five tercets and a final quatrain. Its repetitions do not simply repeat: as the surrounding language and situation change, the same words can gather pressure, doubt, grief, desire or surprise.

Free Verse — Free verse is not prose broken into short lines. It is verse that gives up a regular metrical pattern and predetermined rhyme scheme, while using lineation, cadence, syntax, repetition, sound and space to make deliberate form.

Detailed Definition
Anaphora: A rhetorical and poetic device involving the deliberate and deliberate repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more successive lines, sentences, or clauses. This technique serves to create emphasis, build momentum, establish a rhythmic pattern, and intensify emotional impact. By starting multiple lines in the same way, the poet draws attention to the repeated element and the ideas that follow it. Anaphora is a powerful tool for persuasion and can create a liturgical or chant-like quality in poetry. It is famously used in Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself' and Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech. N. Scott Momaday uses it in "The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee" with the repeated "I am" to construct a sense of selfhood and identity through a series of powerful metaphors. The device originated in Greek rhetoric and remains a potent strategy for achieving both musicality and thematic resonance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Anaphora repeats words at the start of lines; Ginsberg’s “Howl” uses it: “Who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking… / Who sank all night in submarine light…”
Additional Notes
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or clauses; it builds rhythm, emotional intensity, and emphasis—frequently used in prophetic, political, or lyrical poetry (e.g., Ginsberg’s “Howl”).
Other Meanings of “Anaphora”
Also Known As
Repetition Parallel opening Beginning repeat Rhetorical repetition Word repetition anaphoric phrase Initial repetition
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