Examples of repetition and definition: literary aids (2023)

recurrence definition

Repetition consists of repeating a word, phrase, or sentence and is common in both poetry and poetry.Prose. It is a rhetorical technique to add emphasis, unity and/or power. Because of this definition of repetition, it is a common technique used by public speakers. Throughout human history there have been examples of repetition as it is a good way to remember a story, specific lines from a story, or a story in song form. As such, repetition is an integral part of oral storytelling and is found in legends, folk tales, and religious texts.

Different types of repetition.

There are unique terms for many different types of repetition, most of which are of Greek origin.

• He killed: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several consecutive lines. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech is a famous example because he repeats "I have a dream" at the beginning of several lines.
• Mesodiplosis: Repetition of a word in the middle of each line of the sentence. For example: “we are perplexed, but not desperate; persecuted, but not forsaken; slaughtered, but not destroyed."
• Epistrophe: repetition of a word at the end of each line or clause. For example: "What is behind us and what is in front of us is tiny compared to what is within us." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• Symposium: A combination of anaphora and epistrophe, symploce is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a line and the repetition of another phrase at the end of the line. For example, Simplice appears in the following statement by Bill Clinton: “When it comes to hate, let's stand up and raise our voices. When there's talk of violence, let's stand up and speak out."
• Antanaklasie: From the Greek for "to sit back", it's the repetition of the same word but with different denominations or connotations, often as a kind of play on words. For example: “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?” (Groucho Marx)
• Antiestase: More extreme than antanaclasia is the repetition of words in opposite directions. For example: "We must indeed all be hanged together, or we shall surely all be hanged separately." (Benjamin Franklin)
• Negative-Positive-Restatement: Repetition of an idea first negatively and then positively. An example is the famous JFK quote "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
• epizeuxisPaliology here: Repeating the same word or phrase with no intervening words. For example, the first three words of the popular song "Row, row, row your boat".
• Diakope: Similar to Epizeuxis, it is the repetition of a word or phrase with only a word or two between the repeated words. "Diacope" comes from the Greek and means "to cut in two". The famous line from Shakespeare's version of the St. Crispin's Day speech inHeinrich Vis an example: "We are few, we are few happy, we are a band of brothers."
• doubling: Repetition of a word at different points along a line or paragraph. Elie Weisel used this technique in hisThe dangers of indifference:: “I have deep and enduring gratitude to the American people. Gratitude is a word I treasure. Gratitude is what makes people human.”
• Anadiplosaor gradation: Repeat the last word of one line as the first word of the next. For example the saying “When the going gets tough, the tough keep going.”
• Epanalepsis: Repeat the first word or words of a line at the end of that line too. For example: "Nothing can come from nothing." (Lucretius)
• Diaphorese: Repetition of a name to indicate the person and then the meaning of the name. EITHERhousehold word"Boys will be boys" is an example of diaphora.
• epimon: Repeating an interrogative sentence to emphasize or insist on a point. From the Greek for "delay". An example of Epimonen is Sojourner Truth's speech at the 1851 Women's Congress, where she repeated therhetorical question"And I'm not a woman?" repeated.
• Polyptoton: Repetition of words with the same root but different forms. For example: "In gluttonous eating, the food suffocates the eater." (William Shakespeare,Richard II)

poetic forms that use repetition

The following poetic forms involve the repetition necessary to their structure:

• Vilanela: A nineteen-line poem in which two lines are repeated four times in a specific pattern. See this boilerplate example below (Example #3).
• Sextin: Complex poem of thirty-nine lines divided into six stanzas of six lines each and a conclusionversewith three lines. Each line ends with one of six words, and those six words rotate in order. The last stanza contains all six words (only three of them functioning as the last words of the lines). Therefore, each word is repeated at least seven times throughout the poem.
• trillizo: An eight-line poem in which the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and eighth. Therefore, the first two lines and the last two lines are identical couplets.
• Ghazal: Starting at 6^ºCentury Arabicback, a ghazal consists of five or more couplets in which the last word of each is writtenfew Freshis the same.

Examples of repetition of literature

example 1

But now Anders can still buy time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flyball, time for the child in the right meadow to slap his sweaty glove and softly sing:They are, they are, they are.

("Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff)

This excerpt from Wolff's Bullet to the Brain contains the last two lines of the story. The repeat types represented here are Anadiplosa, Anaphora and Epizeuxis. EITHERHeldThroughout the story, he's been pondering a grammatical error he heard as a child, and now, in the final moments of his life, the phrase keeps repeating itself in his head. The effect in the story is to mimic the protagonist's thought pattern when his brain starts to shut down.

Example #2

I met rivers:
I know rivers as old as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul became deep like the rivers.

("Black Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes)

Hughes uses different types of repetition here, including anaphora and conduplicatio. The effect of repetition in this poem is to make the poem sound like it's coming from a narrator.

Example #3

Don't go sweet into this good night
Age must burn and rage at the end of the day;
Anger, anger against the dying of the light.

Though in the end the wise know the darkness is true
Because your words didn't split lightning, they
Don't tread carefully on this good night.

Good men, the last wave, crying, how brilliant
Your fragile deeds could have danced in a green bay
Anger, anger against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught the sun in flight and sang,
And learn, too late, they wailed on their way,
Don't tread carefully on this good night.

Serious men near death who see with blinding eyes
Blind eyes can shine like meteorites and be happy,
Anger, anger against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad peak,
Curse me, bless me now with your heavy tears, I beg you.
Don't tread carefully on this good night.
Anger, anger against the dying of the light.

("Don't be nice on this good night" by Dylan Thomas)

Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is one of the most famous villains ever written. The repeated lines "Do not go gently into this good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" build in intensity throughout the poem to the power of the final couplet.

Example #4

As danger rises and falls
As it sinks or swells in the rage of the bells,
the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells –
Let's not cry or cry!

("The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe)

This famous Edgar Allen Poe poem contains many different repetition examples, including epizeuxis, conduplicatio, and polyptoton. The word "bells" occurs 62 times throughout the poem, often without intervening words (epizeuxis). This particular type of repetition helps the poem sound like bells ringing.

Test your knowledge on repetition

1. Which definition of repetition best fits the term anaphora?
A.A word or phrase repeated at the beginning of multiple lines.
B.A repeated word in the middle of each line or clause.
C.A word repeated at the end of each line or clause.

2. Consider the following line from "The Bells":

As danger rises and falls, -
By shipwreck or by swelling in the wrath of the bells

This is an example of what definition of repetition?

A. epizeuxis
B.doubling
C.Polyptoton

3. Rewatch Dylan Thomas' villain Don't Go Kindly To That Good Night. Using this poem as a guide, which of the following structures is correct for the villanelle form? (Note: uppercase letters are used to indicate repeated lines and lowercase letters to express rhymes.)

A.A b C / d e F / g h I / j k L / m n O / p q R S
B.A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2
C.A1 b C1 / d e A2 / f g C2 / h ich A3 / j k C3 / l m A4 C4