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Anaphora

Rhetorical Devices
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

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines, clauses, or sentences. It creates emphasis, rhythm, and a sense of accumulating force.

Detailed Definition
Anaphora is a pattern of initial repetition, as when several lines begin with the same phrase. Common in speeches, prayers, songs, and lyric poetry, it gives language a ceremonial or insistent cadence. Poets use anaphora to reinforce an idea, dramatize an emotion, or bind separate images into a unified sequence. Repeated openings can also create expectation, so that changes in the pattern become meaningful. Its rhythmic return makes a thought feel memorable, urgent, or communal.
Example
Example in poetry:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud” begins Wordsworth’s repeated first-person meditation; “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me” repeats “Because” in Dickinson’s poem; “I have a dream” repeats the opening phrase in King’s speech and can structure a poem; “Let the rain wash the city, let the rain wake the seeds, let the rain cool our hands” repeats a beginning phrase
Additional Notes
Anaphora gives repeated openings ceremonial, persuasive, or incantatory force. It is especially effective when each repeated phrase introduces a variation, escalation, or fresh image rather than merely filling space. Notice how anaphora differs from epistrophe, which repeats endings, and from refrain, which may recur less regularly.
Other Meanings of “Anaphora”
Also Known As
Beginning Repetition Initial Repetition Opening Refrain Iteration
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