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Symploce

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

The combination of anaphora and epistrophe: repeating words at both the start and finish of successive clauses.

Detailed Definition
Symploce is a rhetorical device combining anaphora (repetition at line beginnings) and epistrophe (repetition at line endings) simultaneously, creating emphatic, incantatory structures; in poetry, it builds rhythmic intensity and thematic insistence, as in biblical psalms or Whitman’s catalogs, reinforcing key ideas through mirrored repetition.
Example
Example in poetry:
Symploce combines anaphora and epistrophe: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, / I understood as a child, I thought as a child”; biblical example: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; modern example: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speeches; symploce creates rhythmic insistence; it’s common in rhetoric and liturgy; this device emphasizes contrast through repetition.
Additional Notes
Repetition of opening and closing words in successive clauses. Creates emphasis, rhetorical power. Example: "Much we learn, much we forget." Combines anaphora and epistrophe effects.
Other Meanings of “Symploce”
Also Known As
Beginning-and-ending repetition Bookend anaphora Double frame Combined anaphora-epistrophe
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