Anaphora Examples: The Literary Device in Text and Speeches

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or sequence of words at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. It is one of many rhetorical devices used by orators and writers to emphasize their message or to make their words memorable.

Celebrated poet Amanda Gorman, who uses anaphora in her own work, describes the rhetorical device this way: “Anaphora is a very long and beautiful way of saying ‘using a structure or a phrase at the beginning of a sentence repeatedly.’” Consider her poem “Ship’s Manifest,” which includes the lines: “This book is a message in a bottle. This book is a letter. This book does not let up.”

The word “anaphora” entered the English language from the Greek, where it means “reference” or “a carrying back.” English speakers have used the present definition of anaphora since the fourteenth century.

Writers use anaphora intentionally as a literary device, knowing they can achieve several effects by incorporating it. Here are a few reasons you might use anaphora:

• To create a rhythm: Judicious repetition can make a piece of text more musical and lilting and, therefore, more pleasant to read or hear. Poet Amanda Gorman explains, “What anaphora can do is, similar to alliteration, it can create a moment in your poem whose energy and momentum is based oof of that same phrase. In poetry, we might even call this a refrain.”
• To give emphasis: Anaphora draws attention to the repeated words, as well as those directly around them. This makes anaphora a particularly popular tool for public speaking, where the audience might have a more limited attention span and lacks the option to reread any words they’ve missed. “I would say don’t waste the anaphora on a castaway verse,” Amanda notes. “If you’re gonna repeat the same line over and over and over again, you want to make sure it’s the part of your poem that swings the hardest.”
• To link, compare, or contrast ideas: Sometimes the ideas that follow the successive repeated words are quite different. In these cases, anaphora invites the audience to appreciate the contrast more deeply.

Writers use anaphora intentionally as a literary device, knowing they can achieve several effects by incorporating it. Here are a few reasons you might use anaphora:

1. 1. To create a rhythm: Judicious repetition can make a piece of text more musical and lilting and, therefore, more pleasant to read or hear. Poet Amanda Gorman explains, “What anaphora can do is, similar to alliteration, it can create a moment in your poem whose energy and momentum is based oof of that same phrase. In poetry, we might even call this a refrain.”
2. 2. To give emphasis: Anaphora draws attention to the repeated words, as well as those directly around them. This makes anaphora a particularly popular tool for public speaking, where the audience might have a more limited attention span and lacks the option to reread any words they’ve missed. “I would say don’t waste the anaphora on a castaway verse,” Amanda notes. “If you’re gonna repeat the same line over and over and over again, you want to make sure it’s the part of your poem that swings the hardest.”
3. 3. To link, compare, or contrast ideas: Sometimes the ideas that follow the successive repeated words are quite different. In these cases, anaphora invites the audience to appreciate the contrast more deeply.

Outside of the spoken word, there are famous examples of anaphora throughout written literature. The following writers have used the device:

1. 1. Charles Dickens: The famous opening lines to the author’s A Tale of Two Cities are: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Here, Dickens combines anaphora with another type of repetition called antithesis, which means placing opposite ideas in the same parallel spot in a sentence. This invites readers to think more deeply about the contrasts and ponder how they can all be true.
2. 2. Maya Angelou: In her poem “Still I Rise,” Angelou repeats “I’ll rise” and “I rise” a number of times, culminating in her final anaphoric lines, which read: “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise / Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear / I rise / Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, / I am the dream and the hope of the slave. / I rise / I rise / I rise.”
3. 3. Robert Frost: The poet uses anaphora in “Fire and Ice,” a poem that begins with the words: “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.”

What Is the Difference Between Anaphora, Epistrophe, and Symploce?
Anaphora, epistrophe, and symploce are literary terms with similar definitions. Here is a comparison of the three devices:

• Anaphora: The repetition of a word or sequence of words at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences is anaphora. It is a rhetorical device orators and writers use to create a rhythm or add emphasis. Writer J.D. Salinger used anaphora here in his novel The Catcher in the Rye: “It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place.”
• Epistrophe: Sometimes called epiphora, this direct counterpart to anaphora involves repetition at the end of successive sentences or clauses. An example comes from the Bible: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
• Symploce: A combination of anaphora and epistrophe, symploce involves one repetition at the beginning of a line and another at the end. Former US President Bill Clinton used symploce in a speech when he said: “When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.”

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