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GradatioClimaxAuxesis

Figures of Repetition

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"anadiplosis"

From Richard Nordquist,
Your Guide to Grammar & Composition.
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Definition:

Repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next. Anadiplosis often leads to climax (see also gradatio). Note that a chiasmus includes anadiplosis, but not every anadiplosis reverses itself in the manner of a chiasmus.

Etymology:

From the Greek "doubling back"

Examples:

  • "Make money, money by fair means if you can, if not, but any means money."
    (Horace, Epistles)


  • "When I give I give myself."
    (Walt Whitman)


  • "Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."
    (Henry James)


  • "All service ranks the same with God,
    With God, whose puppets, best and worst,
    Are we."
    (Robert Browning, Pippa Passes)


  • "The years to come seemed waste of breath,
    waste of breath the years behind."
    (William Butler Yeats, "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death,")


  • "Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard. Standard performance is sub-standard. Sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist."
    (Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk)


  • "The laughter had to be gross or it would turn to sobs, and to sob would be to realize, and to realize would be to despair."
    (Howard Griffin, Black Like Me)


  • "The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it."
    (Dylan Thomas on Wales)


  • "I am Sam, Sam I am."
    (Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham)


  • "Only the brave deserve the fair and the fair deserve Jaeger."
    (advertising slogan for Jaeger Sportswear)


  • "The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story!"
    (Commodus in the movie Gladiator, 2000)


  • "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you."
    (Frank Oz as Yoda in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menance)
Audio LinkPronunciation: anna di PLO sis
Also Known As: duplicatio, reduplicatio, redouble
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