Anaphora is a writing instrument that includes the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a series of sentences, phrases, or phrases. Anaphora serves as a writing tool that allows writers to convey, emphasize, and reinforce meaning. Repetition of words at the beginning of each phrase in a group of sentences or phrases is a style that can be very effective in speeches, songs, poems and prose.
Anaphora is used in a conversational way to express emotion and as a means of emphasizing or affirming a point or idea. Here are some examples of conversational anaphora:
- “Go big or go home.”
- “Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.”
- “Get busy living or get busy dying.”
- “Give me liberty or give me death.”
- “You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.”
- “Stay safe. Stay well. Stay happy.”
- “So many places, so little time.”
- “I wish I may; I wish I might.”
When it comes to speech and writing, the anaphora can provide the rhythm of words and sentences. This can have a powerful effect on the audience by arousing emotions, motivation, motivation, and even memory. Such a pattern of repetition at the beginning of sentences or sentences is especially helpful in political discourse and writing as a way to engage the audience. Anaphora catches their attention, and creates a lasting image.
Overall, as a literary device, anaphora serves as a means of emphasizing words and ideas. Also, it can provide a lyrical and artistic effect when used properly. Students often remember the roles that included the anaphora in the way they would remember to give up music. This not only enhances the learner’s experience and enjoyment of the language, but also enhances the writer’s ability to convey and reinforce meaning in their work.
Examples of Anaphora in Poetry
Let us now work on few examples where the poetic words utilize anaphora with phrases. The poetry is composed by distinguished poets / writers:
Example 1: If you want the moon (Rumi)
If you want the moon, do not hide from the night.
If you want a rose, do not run from the thorns.
If you want love, do not hide from yourself.
Rumi’s poetic words utilize anaphora with the phrase “if you want,” presenting a choice directly to the reader. This phrase repetition appears as if the choice is conditional, in the sense that the reader must decide whether they want what the poet is suggesting.
Example 2: We Real Cool (Gwendolyn Brooks)
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
In this poem, Brooks makes clever and dramatic use of anaphora with repetition of “we.” However, the placement of this pronoun at the end of each line creates a visual as well as lyrical effect for the reader. The subject, “we,” seems an afterthought, though it is grammatically the first word of each sentence in the poem.
By making the subject secondary to the action, the reader’s focus is drawn towards the rhythm and pattern of the words describing what the subject is doing. This creates a dramatic effect for the last line, “die soon.” The anaphora, “we,” is absent in the last line. Therefore, the poem concludes with the figurative death of the subject and the literal death of the literary device.
Example 3: Charles Dickens makes use of anaphora in the opening of The Tale of Two Cities.
“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.”
Example 4: Also see how Salinger added emphasis to the rain in 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.”
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